


Strangers in the night

by ZeldaElmo



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Angst and Fluff and Smut, F/M, Family Issues, Mentions of Unhealthy Relationships, Mentions of Violence, Risky Behaviour, Slow Burn, Smut, botw au, one-night-stand, traffic accident, zelink
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-03
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-13 17:21:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 43
Words: 76,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28532115
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZeldaElmo/pseuds/ZeldaElmo
Summary: Ok, so maybe, Link is a workaholic. Who wouldn't with a job like his? Retrieving artifacts of the old Heroes for the National Museum is fun. He can solve old puzzles in abandoned dungeons or shrines and if he is lucky, he can even snowboard in his working hours!When his HR-manager Urbosa forces him to take two weeks off, an unexpected discovery comes about to change his life forever. He has to go on a journey he has never meant to make and sometimes, it needs someone with a smile like the sun to realize what the important things in life are.A story about setting priorities, old and new family issues, and a tricky little thing called love.Loosely botw-inspired. Zelink
Relationships: Daruk & Link (Legend of Zelda), Link & Mipha (Legend of Zelda), Link/Zelda (Legend of Zelda), Mipha/Revali (Legend of Zelda), Revali/Zelda (one-sided), Urbosa & Zelda (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 304
Kudos: 324





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is a slow-burn fic, I swear. Don't get fooled by the prologue...
> 
> Oh, and for everybody who loves hide-and-seek - I hid several lines (or parts of them) of the botw cutscenes in this fic! Write a comment if you find one!

Toss — only 20 hours now until he would leave the country.

Catch — one evening left.

Step — tomorrow would start the biggest project in the history of the National Museum of Hyrule.

Toss — with him as the manager.

The cuff links flew in the air and landed in Link’s hands again with practiced ease.

Catch — a little odd to leave all the people, the habits, and the places he knew behind.

Step — if he could do that? Leading a team? Running a project?

Toss — of course. He had worked all his life for this chance. Everything would go well.

The little studs sparkled in the last rays of the midwinter sun. ‘Blue like luminous stones in the night’ — had his childhood friend Mipha beamed, when he had unwrapped her little parcel a few days ago — ‘to match your eyes’.

Stop — he teared his gaze up from his fruitless task to notice only now that he had reached the French window of room 303. He leaned himself against the frame of the window and twirled the little pieces of jewelry in his fingers. They radiated warmth in his hands, and he didn’t care that it was his own body heat that had warmed them up.

Enclosing the farewell gift in his hands, he let his gaze travel over the courtyard below his feet. This time, his HR-manager Urbosa had outdone herself. The party he was peeping at served as much as a kick-off as a farewell party and the location itself was magnificent. The patio was dominated by a floating panorama glass roof to keep the harsh cold of the winter outside. Through the brightly polished glass of the top, he could see the little stage that had been built. Large speakers stood at every side and when he touched the toned glass of the window with his palm, it vibrated in rhythm with the subwoofer. It looked like he had to stay until the party was over, if he wanted to get some sleep tonight, he smirked.

On the left and the right side of the courtyard, the hotel staff of the ‘Castletown City Hotel’ had put up a bar and although the sun hadn’t set yet, many of his co-workers, business partners, and other people had already joined the party. Link got on his tiptoes and tried to spot Daruk. A grown-up Goron shouldn’t be too difficult to detect, but perhaps he was still running errands for Urbosa.

He leaned his head against the glass, the vibrating pulse filling the emptiness, he had pushed back the whole day, for once. The moment, Urbosa had appointed him to the new project, he would have bounced from one leg to the other and clapped his hand like a toddler, if he hadn’t been in the office of his HR-manager. A project with leading responsibility, building up a base in Termina from nothing, finding the artifacts of the Hero of Time — it was an extremely important project for the National Museum and Urbosa had truly chosen him.

He was still thrilled about the new task, but now with only hours left until his departure, his hands had become restless and his stomach uneasy. The glowing evening sun basked the whole courtyard in orange light, every ice crystal on the glass surface sparkling like diamonds on a luster. Perhaps the sun over Hyrule was giving its best to gloss the farewell over for him, he smiled with thin lips.

Finally, he dragged himself up, put the cuff links on, and went downstairs. The party was for his new team, after all, so he wanted to show his face. Spending his last evening moody would be a terrible waste of time when there was a party to attend.

At the same time in the courtyard, Zelda squeezed herself through sweaty bodies, her figure and her long blonde hair attracting the attention of several men and some women, too. She didn’t pay any of them mind. Shielding her green eyes against the harsh light of the low sun with her hand, she flinched every time someone stepped on her foot. Her appearance at the party was a personal favor for her godmother (and HR-manager) Urbosa and she hadn’t found the Gerudo woman yet. The glass roof caught the warmth of the setting sun like a greenhouse and the body heat of the crowd glimmered over Zelda’s head. She intensely hoped that it was not her body-odor that tickled her nose.

Promise or not, the next time, she had an elbow in her back, she would go home. Urbosa had insisted that socializing would do her good after all that she had been through, but she should have known better to agree to meet with her here. Of course, it had been impossible to find a party animal like her at an event with hundreds of people. Zelda clicked her tongue. Why in Hylia’s name hadn’t she said ‘no’?

Behind her, a peal of booming laughter drowned the music out. She spun around, nearly spilling her soda, and spotted the source. Daruk — finally a familiar face. Smiling fondly, she basked in his chit-chat for a while, hoping Urbosa would join them on her own.

It wasn’t Urbosa who joined them.

While the good-natured Daruk was busy introducing his two Hylian friends to each other and retelling the stories of his particular meeting with both, he was completely unaware of the magnetic pull, when ice-blue met emerald-green.

Link wasted no time guiding Zelda in the direction of the bar, his hand on her smaller back to avoid losing her in the crowd. Zelda blinked several times, but the only thing replaying behind her eyelids was what she saw with open eyes — blue, blue, blue. Daruk turned towards his other co-workers, very pleased with himself that he had helped his friends connect.

Link released her hesitantly at the counter, not wanting to press his luck. Nonetheless, he knew too well, that he wouldn’t be able to resist the urge to touch her much longer if she continued to step closer and closer. Her tender gaze washed over him and the tips of her hair tickled his neck, while the words and smiles were dancing around them like fireflies. They chatted and laughed the hours away, both of them hyperaware of the constantly reducing space between them. Daruk, Urbosa, being moody or irritated, everything and everybody long forgotten in the whirlwind of teasing jokes and lingering touches. Zelda didn’t even try to hinder her cheek from brushing his, his beard stubbles leaving the ghost of a scratch on her blushed cheeks, as she attempted to speak with him over the loud music. Next, he caught her staring at his mouth, and before he could blink, he tasted the champagne he had ordered on her lips. Link gasped and Zelda took the opportunity to deepen the kiss. Catching up quickly, Link tangled his hand in her hair like he had wanted for the last hour already and wrapped the other around her waist to close the remaining gap between their bodies.

They made it still fully clothed to Link’s room somehow, which was a miracle in itself, regarding how quickly their kisses had heated up. Zelda was pressing him in the door frame, peppering his neck with kisses and pulling his white shirt out of his belt, while Link fumbled with the keys. Unable to get the lock open at this angle, he freed himself by pressing her in the coffered door with another hungry kiss, causing them both to stumble when he finally succeeded in his task.

He caught her easily and changed the rhythm in a slow, measured dance of tongues, allowing his hands to roam over her bottom, along her back, before he found her waist and her nape again and pulled her in. Zelda hummed in response to the kiss, grabbed his backside to buck her hips into his, rubbing against his growing erection.

Link stopped and traced her lips with his thumb: “Do you want?”

“I thought, that’s why we came here”, she snorted.

Link pressed a kiss on her forehead and cupped her cheek. “Of course, but I don’t want to assume. Better safe than sorry.”

Zelda took a long moment to look at him before she slowly said: “Yes, I want. Very much actually.”

“Good.” He captured her lips in a soft, long kiss, still enraptured by the intensity of her gaze. “Me too. Very much.”

Turning his gaze towards the large windows, through which he could still see the party goers, he frowned: “I should probably close the curtains. None of us wants to be the center of the rumor mill tomorrow, I suppose.”

“Don’t you know?”, she asked with raised eyebrows. “The hotel is not only famous for the panorama roof but its opaque windows, too. Very popular among the paparazzi.” She chuckled and dragged her finger lazily over his chest. “I thought you rent the room for exactly why we are here.”

“Nope. See my stuff? I’m going to leave directly from here to the airport.” He laughed and pulled her close again, “I swear, I just wanted to spend my last evening with Daruk.”

Trailing wet kisses down her neck, he murmured, “Who would have thought that he knows such a gorgeous woman?”

Sliding his jacket from his broad shoulders, she deadpanned, “I already agreed to sleep with you, no need to charm me anymore.”

He took his time to explore the cleavage of her cocktail dress with his lips, sucking, licking, and biting the smooth skin. “But it’s true. I really could get used to this. To you.”

“It’s a good thing that you are leaving for Termina tomorrow then”, she answered flatly and loosened his tie.

“Oh, so eager to get rid of me?”, he chuckled in her neckline, before he squeezed her breasts up to suck at the soft flesh, leaving a purple mark on the sensitive skin.

“Nothing personal”, she sighed, while unbuttoning his shirt with quick hands, pushing it from his shoulders as well. He let go of her to allow the piece to fall to the ground and sneaked his hands under her arms to reach the zipper of her cocktail dress. He opened it in one swift motion and breathed against her nape, “Bad luck with men?”, causing a shiver of pleasant anticipation to run down her back.

She tugged his undershirt over his head and took a moment to take his toned, well-built chest in. Since he was working as an explorer, she had expected him to be fit, but that he even had abs was a pleasant surprise.

“I would rather not talk about my ex now.“

“Fine by me, Zelda.” Link chuckled and couldn’t take his hands of her newly exposed skin. He cupped her butt, relishing the haptic contrast of her soft skin and the textured lace of her Brazilian briefs for a moment before he pressed her against his erection.

Zelda, who had been busy nibbling at his neck, moaned in his ear, causing him to rock into her again. She let her hands wander over his hard body, beginning at his shoulders went on to his pectorals before she retraced his abs with her fingers and brushed over the fabric of his trousers. He leaned his head against her shoulder, eyes pressed shut in pleasure, savoring the tingling sensation her touch left on his body.

Running out of patience, she tried to fumble his belt open, tugging at the buckle when it refused to obey. He raised her chin for another kiss, slow and deliberate at first, but quickly growing hungry and hurried again, while he shoved her hands aside and got rid of his pants and sox himself.

Link pressed further into the kiss, walking her backward until her knees hit the edge of the bed, and she let herself fall on the Kingsize Bed, pulling him with her. He flipped them, so they laid in the middle of the bed now, she half towering over him, the tips of her long hair tickling his shoulders. Her kisses grew more urgent now, clear in intention, her hands sliding over his chest, pinching his nipples. After opening her strapless bra with practiced ease, he threw the piece in the general direction of the pile of their clothes without bothering to look after it. He pulled her gently against him because he needed her skin to skin, deepening the kiss once more.

The lack of oxygen forced them to break the kiss, and he nibbled at her earlobe instead, murmuring hardly audible: “Protection?”

“On me”, she breathed and sneaked her hand under the waistband of his boxer shorts, and soon he had forgotten what he had asked at all.

When the fireworks high above the glass roof announced the peak of the farewell party, neither of them paid the colorful stars in the sky mind.

They had their own.


	2. Chapter 2

Link poked his plastic fork in the flabby thing at the bottom of his takeaway container. He picked it up, viewed it from all angles, and shoved the fork back. That wasn’t a mushroom, that was a crime against his gustative nerve. ‘Best mushroom rice balls in Hyrule’, he snorted, when he tossed the box in the garbage can. Well, he hadn’t been in Hyrule for four years, maybe the Hyrulean cuisine had become uneatable in the meantime.

He pulled his phone from his jeans in a much-practiced motion and unlocked the screen. His index finger flew over the smooth surface, stopping at his favorite game app. Ah, he had already used his free lives for today when he had to wait for his luggage at the airport. He flipped further. He hadn’t taken a look at his blog today – oh. Urbosa would never let him hear the end of it when he posted on his explorer blog when he was supposed to be on _vacation_. Since the blog was part of the Museum’s official employer branding strategy, she would get a notification about a new entry. But he could _prepare_ some entries, he smirked. He didn’t have to post them yet. What she didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her.

After pre-uploading and commenting on several photos, typing the first draft of a theory about the lost magic of the Deku mask, and preparing some answers to different asks in his inbox, he rubbed his aching thump. He should have brought his laptop then this would have been much easier. No, vacation, he reminded himself.

He scrolled through his address book, unsure what to do next. Mipha had double shifts in the hospital this week, and he had postponed his date with Daruk to the day after tomorrow because he had thought he would be busy the first few days.

Turned out, he wasn’t.

The names in the address book passed by. Barta? No... they had seen each other the last time on his former project in the Gerudo desert, five, six years ago? Cado? Ah, no, he wasn’t in the mood to talk endlessly about cuckoos today. Or any other day. After he had reached the end of the list, he let himself fall back on the bed.

What was the point of a vacation anyway?

He had important stuff to do. Ok, that was a blatant lie. He had unimportant stuff to do. They had found the 24 masks the Hero of Time had used on his adventure and the project could be completed in a year or most likely less. The National Museum was currently in the planning phase for a big exhibition to show all the masks, and he and his team were left to organize the formalities to get the items back to Hyrule, secure the dungeons again, and other administrative stuff. Nothing of that thrilled him. But! The sooner he could finish the horrible dull tasks in Termina, Urbosa could appoint him to a new project. To something _new_ and exciting. To a project where his skills as an explorer were needed and not boring cleanup. But no, Urbosa wouldn’t want to hear any of this. Gods, she even booked him the flight back to Hyrule because she said it was her responsibility as his HR-manager to keep an eye on the work-life-balance of her fellow workers. And no vacation in four years was obviously enough to get her worried. Groaning, he glanced at the clock. 5 p.m. Another two hours killed.

Seven hours and thirteen days to go.


	3. Chapter 3

“Hey, darling!” Zelda held her arms open for her daughter. The little girl flew through the apartment door and Zelda nearly toppled over. Laughing, she asked: “Have you had a nice day with Telma?”

Tetra nodded and wrapped her arms tightly around her mother's neck. Zelda struggled to her feet. “You are getting taller from week to week, Tetra”, she smiled.

“Zelda.” Tetra’s nanny Telma stood in the door frame with crossed arms, her feet tapping. Zelda flinched at the sight of the severe face the good-hearted woman was wearing.

“I know you are hard-up and all, but you are in debt for three months now.”

Zelda averted her gaze and analyzed the structure of Telma’s colorful doormat. “I know, I know. You’ll get the money, it’s just – “

“Zelda.” Telma’s strict voice forced her to look up again. “You are not the only one who has to pay rent. Tetra is a sweet girl, but I can’t do that for free.”

Zelda felt a flush spreading on her face. “Of course. Tetra needed a bunch of new clothes after her burst of growth last month and the court sent their bill.” She snuggled Tetra closer. “I had to pay my lawyer in advance, too. Things are really difficult right now.”

“You know, I’m the last one who wouldn’t understand that. But this is my last reminder. I have to terminate our arrangement if you can’t pay me.”

Zelda’s eyes flew open. “N-no! It’s just two months until kindergarten starts, you can’t do that!” She would never find another nanny for just two months. It had been difficult enough to find someone trustworthy near her apartment. If Telma handed in her notice, they were doomed. She couldn’t take Tetra with her to work, not for two full months. A toddler in a lab was like a bull in a China shop. A day or two was tolerated from time to time, but that was the limit.

“Then clear your debts! Ask your father or something. This is my last word.”

Zelda turned around, murmuring: “I’ll find a way, Telma.”

Never, ever in her life would she ask her father for money. She forced herself to smile at her daughter through the uneasiness in her stomach when Tetra giggled and poked her in the cheek.

Perhaps Urbosa could help. She would ask her first thing tomorrow morning.


	4. Chapter 4

Link woke up too early. Far too early. He had made a to-do-list yesterday evening to fill the days until his flight back was scheduled and the first entry for today had been ‘have a good night's rest’ and that surely didn’t mean waking up at 6:30 a.m. He tossed and turned for another half an hour, buried his head under the pillow, even tugged himself in up to the nose, but it was to no avail, he wouldn’t sleep in again.

At least he had brought his running shoes, he sighed while he tied the laces. The garage owner who stored his motorcycle wouldn’t be contactable until 10 a.m., so he could just as well keep himself in shape in the meantime. He activated his running app and the GPS – he had been abroad so long that he wasn’t sure if he would find the way back on his own.

Castletown hadn’t changed much, at least from his perspective. Sure, there was a new giant bookstore here and some fancy shops with the latest trends there, but apart from that, the city was still as bustling and loud as he had left it. After three-quarters of an hour, he passed the street, where his and  Daruk’s old apartment was. Since  Daruk had a house with his family at Death Mountain and had been only by the week in Castletown, they had shared an apartment ever since Link started his career as a young explorer – until Link left for Termina. Over the years,  Daruk had become something between a brother, a godfather, and an uncle for him and the memory of the time here put a smile on his face.

His knees began to complain about the harsh underground – the thin soles of his running shoes were clearly made for the soft ground of nature and not for cobblestone. A look at his running app confirmed that it was about time to head back anyway, so he decided to give the shortcut through the Romani Park a try. He had nearly reached the end of the park when the chime of his phone disturbed his running playlist. Fumbling the phone from his belt, he brushed the answer button – perhaps  Mipha had been able to change her shifts and could spare some time for him. 

“Hello, Link.”

Link pinched the bridge of his nose with his free hand. Ilia.

“Hello.”

“I know, it’s been a while, but I have a day off today, and I was wondering... if you would care for a coffee.”

“Ilia, look, I don’t think that’s a good idea. I’m not in  Clocktown anyway.” He kicked little pebbles with his feet, while he slowly made his way towards the exit.

“Oh, where are you?”

“Hyrule.”

“You left the country and didn’t even tell me? I can’t believe you!” Link blinked rapidly and shook his head. Well, and there we have one of the reasons why we are not dating anymore, Ilia.

“We broke up a half year ago, Ilia. I don’t have to tell you when I’m on home leave.”

She snuffled on the other end of the line.

“And I thought, home was here. With me.”

Gods, that girl. They had been dating for a few months after he had met her in a bar, but when she began to talk nonstop about marriage, he decided to pull the plug and regarding how often she had tried to win him over again, it had been not a moment too early.

He glanced along the buildings to orientate himself and was pleased to recognize the Castletown City Hotel. His eyes flashed to the taxi stand, but of course, Zelda was not there, still waving him goodbye four years later.

“Do you have someone else? Is that it?”

“N-yes.” A wicked grin spread on his face. “Yes, I have someone else. I’m sorry.”

“Oh. What’s her name?”

“Zelda. She is... we are co-workers. Love at first sight, you know?”

“O-oh, ok. I’m, yeah, I mean, I’m happy for you, Link.”

“Thank you”, he smiled and felt a bit silly for being complimented for something that didn’t exist. “So, that’s it, I guess. Nice to hear from you, Ilia, but I think we should leave it here.”

“Yes, yes. I won’t stand in your way. Perhaps we will cross paths again when you are back in  Clocktown .”

“Sure.”

He secured his phone on his belt again and rolled his shoulders to shake off the tension which had built up during the call. Hopefully, that little white lie would keep her at bay.

Estimating the distance to his hotel he decided, a little sprinting exercise to get rid of these negative vibes couldn’t hurt and with one last glance at the taxi stand, he was off.


	5. Chapter 5

The rest of the day was pleasantly undisturbed – perhaps this vacation thing wasn’t as bad as he had thought. The breakfast at the hotel was way better than his experience with the mushrooms yesterday, the shower was hot and the feeling of his bike under his butt was worth every minute he had spent to get the motorcycle in running condition again.

Not that he had something else to do anyway.

So, he arrived at the main building of his workplace with a juvenile tune on his lips. The National Museum was a large complex of buildings – at the front side was the Museum itself. It was a large, partly historical structure, some of the walls were said to exist since before the last kingdom fell. A large loftwing statue towered on the roof, much like the shattered remnants that could be spotted near the abandoned castle. His workplace and goal for today were the building at the backside. Contrary to the Museum at the front, the headquarter was a modern complex with a bright glass façade and steel beams. The loftwing here was worked in the façade, the mixture of clear and frosted glass giving it the impression that it was floating inches in front of the offices.

Hyrule cherished his history. 

Link took a look at the well-known symbol and freed a plastic container from under his seat. Balancing the not overly large, but heavy box towards the building, he was pleased to state that the large foyer had been upgraded with automatic doors. Fortune favors the bold, he smirked to himself.

Of course, bringing some samples he had gathered in Termina to the labs in person wasn’t exactly part of his job description. As an explorer, he was paid to research the whereabouts of the artifacts of the ancient Heroes, including retrieving them, but he knew that the official way for uncharted, ancient material could take weeks, sometimes months. It had become a habit for him to lay some minor important pieces aside to give them to his workmates, so they could take them back via airplane. Naturally, he had taken a box himself, hoping, that the security check at the airport wouldn’t classify the Ancient Guardian Shield as a weapon. _That_ would have given a fuss.

He slowed his pace and tried to orientate himself. The building was oddly familiar, even after years. Perhaps he should have asked Urbosa if her office was still in the same place. Walking through the plain corridors, many people greeted him by name. He could have sworn that he saw some of them for the first time – perhaps his blog had some followers among the personnel, too.

He was in luck again, because it was indeed Urbosa looking up from rearranging her files on the shelves when she heard him knocking on the door he remembered as hers.

“Hey Link!”, she called in surprise. “Didn’t expect you here today, since you are in Hyrule for home leave, are you not? Nice to see you in person again, by the way.”

“Missed me?”, Link chuckled as he leaned against the door frame.

“Well, handsome gentlemen are getting rare these days, so it’s always good to see you are safe and sound.” She laughed. “But I suppose you didn’t come here to flirt with an old hag like me.”

Link rolled his eyes at her, “Don’t think I will live to the day you deserve the title ‘old hag’, but you are right, I’m here because of this.” He lifted the box in his hands. “These are some samples for the science team I collected in Termina. Do you know where I could leave them safely?”

“Sure. Come with me, I’ll show you the labs of the scientists. What is it? We don’t want to give Shiekah tech to the chemist”, Urbosa laughed again and waved him to follow her.

“Well, the most prominent should be the Ancient Guardian Shield, I guess.”

“Alright, Robbie then. Do you have special plans for your vacation, Link?”, the HR manager tried to keep the conversation going while they walked through the corridors towards the labs. 

Link shrugged casually, unwilling to admit that he had to help himself over the boredom with a to-do-list. “Nothing special. Catching up with a few people, I suppose. I’m afraid I just managed to stay in touch with Daruk.”

“But you have friends in Termina, haven’t you? A girl?” Urbosa frowned. 

“Is this an interrogation of sorts?”, Link laughed at her. 

“You are allowed to have a private life even as the man in charge, Link. How old are you? 30?”

“ _29._ And really, the trick is to find a job where you can do what you love and where you are even paid for that”, Link grinned.

“You know that’s not what I’m talking about.”

He rolled his eyes at her. Not that he had anything to compare, but she totally gave him Mom-vibes. He tore his gaze along the corridor. Couldn’t be so far to the labs now.

“Do you already know what the next project will be? Now we are nearly finished, I’m really looking forward to something new. Perhaps I could even post a teaser on the blog, keep people interested, you know?”

She raised both brows at him. “I think, you will need another year to tie the loose ends in Termina, Link. I can’t appoint you to something new, just because the boring stuff starts now. That’s part of the job, too.”

Link lowered his gaze to his box. Being subtle was not his strong suit.

She turned around in the next corridor and opened a double door with several warning signs. “Here we are. Robbie is out for lunch and Zelda’s daughter had a fever last night, so she is working from home today. You can put your box on her desk, I think.”

Link nearly got hit by the door, which Urbosa had released while she was speaking.

“Zelda has a daughter? Wow, I was cut off in Termina. Didn’t know she got married”, he murmured and set the box on Zelda’s desk to hide his blush. He knew that it had been a long time, she had probably completely forgotten about their one-night-stand, but a very little part of him had liked the idea – well, it was downright silly. Of course, she had moved on.

“No, she isn’t married. Well, she was, but her ex-husband is not the father of the child. It’s a bit complicated”, Urbosa laughed.

Link blinked in confusion.

Four years was a long time, but not necessarily enough for getting married and divorced and pregnant from another. Was… was she married when they had sex? Was it his fault that she got divorced because she cheated on her husband with him? He shuddered. Please no. His own relationships had always been... quite casual, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t a code of sorts. No fooling around in a relationship was one of them and that held good for both. Why didn’t he ask her, if she had someone? He could remember parts of the night as clear as daylight, but had she worn a ring? No. That would _never_ have slipped him and wait… she said something about her ex! He exhaled the breath he had been holding and some particle from Zelda’s desk danced through the air around him. At least he wasn’t responsible for a breakup.

He made an affirmative noise to cover his embarrassment which Urbosa took as a sign to continue. 

“She insists that Tetra is a wished-for child, whatever that means. She won’t tell, who the father is.” Urbosa sighed like she had had that conversation very often and with the same end with her. “Not even me as her godmother, can you believe that? Said she won’t see him ever again, anyway”, Urbosa shook her head.

Well, now it was getting odd. Who does that? Four years ago, she had been likable and easy to talk to, but now he wasn’t sure anymore. Why wouldn’t she tell who the father is? Everything about the story and she sounded a bit weird. Who knew, perhaps it was for the better, that he wouldn’t see her again.

He would simply leave his stuff here and forget about her. Still a bit alienated, Link turned back towards Urbosa. Halfway through the motion, he stopped. His eyes were trained to spot the unusual, the one thing, that didn’t fit into a place, the hint to a hidden place, and something about Zelda’s desk screamed at him. He scanned the scene before him. Why were his palms suddenly sweaty?

This was a perfectly normal lab desk. A microscope, shelves with labeled boxes, tools like brushes and tweezers neatly arranged in a row, a picture of her – 

Link’s blood had long run cold before his mind could catch up. He pressed his eyes shut, but the image was burned in his vision. Urbosa’s chit-chat behind him blurred in an annoying noise and his pulse was trying to drown it out. He forced his eyes open again, one by one. Still there. Two blonde pigtails, a cute snub nose, a smile like the sun, and two incredible blue eyes. 

_Blue like luminous stones in the night._

He covered his mouth to prevent himself from gagging. No! _No._ That – no. 

And wait, they had used contraception. So, the girl couldn’t be – if they – _had they?_ His mind flashed back to a heated hotel room, skin on skin on skin, before he came to a sudden, ice-cold realization. He at least had not used a rubber. Grabbing the desk, he tried to steady himself – he didn’t trust his knees anymore. That couldn’t be true. 

But Zelda, she surely had – 

The ice rushed over his back like one of those nasty ice Chuchus had frozen him in place, running through his veins until it had reached every fiber of his being.

Urbosa had just said, Zelda had _planned_ this.

Had she – had she tricked him? No. That couldn’t – _she had been_ – but – _so sweet_ – what if?

He took the picture in his trembling hands and looked at the girl again. His heartbeat had deafened his ears. Was Urbosa still talking? He tried to fight his way through the fog of panic in his mind. He was an outstanding explorer and this... this was just another puzzle. 

Facts. Gather the facts. He and Zelda had sex four years ago. He had not protected. Zelda had said something about contraception, but he wasn’t sure anymore, and she could have lied. 

He swallowed hard, but it was to no avail, lying to himself would bring him nowhere.

T-Tetra was the name? She looked like his reflection, at least her eyes. Zelda’s green eyes had been the first thing about her that had charmed him, only at the second glance he had noticed that she was looking better than anybody had a right to. Tetra must have got her blue eyes from her, her – he swallowed again – _from her father._

Sorting clues was his daily routine and the familiar occupation soothed his turbulent mind while it simultaneously made everything worse as the signs for the inescapable were mounting.

W-what else? Urbosa had also told that Zelda thought she would never see the father again. He had left for Termina the next morning, they both knew that at that time. He didn’t plan to come back for several years, even now he was only on a short vacation. If Tetra was – he shuddered violently – his… _oh gods,_ his daughter, she must be four – no, minus the time of the pregnancy – three years? His mind was so fuzzy, that he could neither remember the month of his departure nor the actual month.

“How old did you said is Tetra?”, he asked, voice hoarse.

“Three years and a few months, I think. It was my first day back here at the office in Hyrule when she told me about her pregnancy. Well, and I left your base in Termina a quarter year after we started…” 

He didn’t hear the rest of her calculation anymore. 

That was it.

The last piece clicked into place. 

He had a three-year-old daughter named Tetra as a result of a long-forgotten one-night-stand.

Or perhaps not so long forgotten, thinking about how often the memory of that night had sweetened his lonely nights in Termina, but that was _really_ beside the point now. 

Link could hardly suppress the trembling, that dominated his whole body when he turned towards his HR manager with the picture in his hand.

“Suppose she was wrong about the never seeing him again part”, he said flatly.

Urbosa looked at him, then at the photo, then again at him.

“Oh my… “, she managed, before breaking in a fit of laughter, that made the coworkers on the other side of the corridor crane their necks after the source of her outburst.

“W-what is so funny?” Link set the picture frame down again, his head spinning and frozen in place at the same time.

Urbosa wiped the tears from her eyes. “Sorry. I’m just happy that she managed to choose one of the good guys as the father of her child. Can’t say that about her husband.”

Link’s mouth fell open. _What?_ He had just discovered that he had a child, for Hylia’s sake! Did she expect him to laugh and carry on? He couldn’t care less about Zelda and her bad luck with men at the moment.

He. was. a. father. Unplanned, unexpected, unwanted, unasked, un-…, un- _everything._

Urbosa’s voice intensified his pulse which was now throbbing violently against his skull. Or was it this creepy situation? He needed to go. Fast.

“If the reward for not being an asshole is, that someone else decides about my family planning, I should perhaps start pretending that I’m one of the bad guys, too.”

He felt his fingers twisting at his side. Honestly, if he stayed in this lab a minute longer, he would explode. Somebody who was mocking him or whatever Urbosa was doing was the last thing he needed now. He forced himself to keep it together some moments longer – he was at work and Urbosa was his HR-manager after all – and made a lame gesture towards the door.

“I think I go now. Thank you for your help with the stuff.”

Urbosa looked at him with her brow narrowed in concern. “You won’t let her down, will you?”

Link ran his hands over his hair in a last attempt to stay calm. Was she this blunt?

“Urbosa, honestly, I came in to deliver a few samples and came out as a father of a three-year-old daughter and you still ask about Zelda?” He shook his head, “I think I need a drink and someone to talk to who is on _my_ side.”

He tried unsuccessfully to even out his breath and hoped she kept her mouth shut when he walked through the double doors of the lab. Concentrating on finding the exit again, he placed step after step, because that was a more pleasant occupation than the alternative of thinking about what had just happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not sure if I manage to post this weekend, so I don't promise anything. At the latest you'll get the next chapter on Monday!   
> We are going to stick with Link a little bit longer as he has (you can imagine) a few things to sort out. But we are switching to Zelda's pov soon, so don't worry about that.


	6. Chapter 6

“Link? I thought we agreed to meet tomorrow because you were busy today?” Daruk opened the door to his apartment and gestured towards Link to come in. Link didn’t waste time to greet his friend before he marched in. It was pointless anyway. 

Everything was pointless. 

“Hello to you, too, Daruk. Nice to see you, it’s been a while,” Daruk deadpanned, holding the door open for a moment longer as if he was expecting someone else who would explain the odd behavior of his friend.

“Do you have a drink? Something hard?”

Link let himself fall on the kitchen chair and buried his face in his hands. He would drink until he forgot this mess and tomorrow everything would be back to normal. He would be a splendid explorer with a nice hangover. Without a daughter. He would go back to Termina and everything would be like it was before. And if Termina wasn’t far away enough to forget about her, he would run farther. 

Yes, that sounded like a well-thought-out plan.

Daruk eyed him, “It's 5 p.m., little guy. Sure, you don’t want water or coke?”

Why was everybody so slow on the uptake today? He hadn’t asked for water, had he? If he had wanted water, he would have asked for water, for Hylia’s sake! 

“Whiskey is fine.”

“Ok, ok, I’ll prepare you a whiskey on the rocks and you tell me, what the heck happened to you.”

“On the rocks, yeah”, Link snorted to himself. “You won’t believe that anyway.”

“Try me.” Daruk busied himself with filling a tumbler with ice cubes from his ice cube maker in the fridge before he placed it in front of Link and presented him a bottle of whiskey. “This one is fine?”

“Hm? Don’t waste your good stuff on me.”

“Link, are you sure about this? You weren’t much of a drinker – ok, ok, I got it.” The huge Goron shrunk under Link’s glare and poured some whiskey in the glass, causing the ice cubes to crackle. He eyed Link calculating and poured another swig.

Link raised the glass but paused before sipping. “What about you, do I have to drink alone?”

Daruk shrugged, while he leaned at his kitchen counter. “Waiting for the story.”

“Better get yourself a glass, Daruk.” Link grimaced. 

Where should he begin to explain to his friend what had happened this afternoon? He downed the golden liquid and flinched at the burning feeling in his throat and stomach. Perhaps this hadn’t been such a smart idea after all. Perhaps he should have asked Daruk for ice cream and toppings instead.

“So, what is this all about, little guy?” Daruk tried to put on a neutral mien, but he couldn’t hide the concern in his voice.

“News of the day: Looks like I became a father in my time in Termina without even knowing it. I’ve got a daughter, Daruk.” 

Daruk looked even more confused now. “I didn’t know you had a girlfriend in Termina, Link. But why are you here, when your baby is born these days?” Daruk scratched his head with his massive hands. “Shouldn’t you be over there, then?”

Goddesses, were all of the Gorons so slow-witted, or was it just Daruk? 

“No, you don’t understand. I don’t have a girlfriend and I have no baby in Termina. I just found out, that I have a three-year-old daughter named Tetra.”

“Zelda from the scholar team has a girl named Tetra, too, didn’t know that was such a common name. She sometimes brings her to work, when her nanny calls in ill. Must be three years or something, too. Such a sweetheart”, Daruk smiled fondly. 

“Yeah, you shouldn’t be so surprised since she has such a handsome father”, Link deadpanned and shook his head at his friend, wondering who of the two was drunk. Slowly, he felt the urge to explain everything to Daruk left him. He would simply surrender and wait for Daruk to come around, no matter how many attempts that may take. 

“Nah, Zelda is a single mom, she always says, Tetra is a desired child without a father.”

“She isn’t without a father. Her father was in Termina for the last four years and didn’t know she existed.”

“Oh. You know him?”

Link groaned and face-palmed. Hard. He was a patient man, but enough was enough.

“Are you doing this on purpose or something? I am Tetra’s father, Daruk! I am the father of Zelda’s child!”

“Oh. _Oh_!” Daruk’s eyes went suddenly wide, “You are the mysterious Mister X!”

“I’m the mys… well, never mind.” Link slammed the empty whiskey tumbler on the stone table, ignoring the unpleasant, scratching noise. He should have buried himself under the cover of his hotel bed until his flight back to Termina was scheduled instead of talking to Daruk. This meeting was supposed to make him feel better, not worse. 

“Ok, you are Tetra’s father. I’ve got that now. Congrats, little guy. Or not? I mean, with the whiskey and all?”

“Daruk… you are not helping”, Link hissed. First Urbosa and now Daruk. What was wrong with his friends? Or was something wrong with him? Well, _everything_ was wrong right now.

“Hey, perhaps you should give me more information if you want a proper answer. No need to get unfriendly.” Daruk sniffed heart-stricken and at any other day Link would have smiled at the hilarious sight, but today he was too tight up in his misery and wasn’t even able to fake a smile.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean it. I needed someone to talk to, but I suppose I’m a horrible company today”, he sighed. His friend was the last to blame. Although he had introduced Zelda and him that evening… but no. 

“Well, that’s what friends are for. Just tell me, what we have.” 

“Ok…”, Link sighed again, even heavier this time. “You remember the farewell party for the Termina Group? Until yesterday I thought, Zelda and I just had an… amazing night”, Link slowly shook his head, “But I was not aware that she was looking for a potential father of her child. Daruk, I even asked her about protection!”

He paused, trying and failing again to grasp the idea that she had done this on purpose. “Sorry for the details.”

“So”, Daruk tapped his fingers against each other in front of his chest, “what you are trying to tell me is, that she laid you because she wanted a child and didn’t tell you that?”

“Yeah, that’s exactly how it looks like. I didn’t talk to her yet, I just talked to Urbosa, but she confirmed it basically and well, you just told me something about a desired child, too”, Link shrugged halfheartedly. “Urbosa didn’t know it was me, either, but the timing is perfect and I saw Tetra’s photo. She has my eyes, I don’t doubt that she is my child. I’m surprised none of you guys noticed that”, he deadpanned in a short trace of sarcasm. 

“Well, you are not exactly chatty about your love life, bro”, Daruk rolled his eyes and waved with the bottle. “Another whiskey?“

“Yeah.”

Daruk waited until he had downed it and was about to pour him a third.

“More?”

Link blinked at him, his stomach still enveloped in the warmth of the alcohol. It faded too quickly to hold onto it.

“Nah.”

“Good, ok. You scared me”, Daruk shuddered and pulled two bottles of coke out of his fridge and shoved one wordlessly in Link’s direction.

“Well, yeah, what can I say to that? That’s pretty crazy. I was always fond of Zelda, but that… wow.”

“Yeah. Tell me about it.”

They settled into silence, both sipping at their bottles and staring into space. The silence lifted the shock from Link’s mind like the autumn sun the lingering fog from a hayfield. Minute for minute, it made room for something else, something that lacked the pleasant warmth of the autumn sun: realization.

Link buried his face in his hands, his thoughts still circling and circling and circling.

“A child from a one-night-stand, seriously now? Goddesses, that’s the kind of thing they warn you about in high school and everybody thinks who’s this stupid”, he groaned, the whiskey loosening his tongue. He – Link Forester – was apparently this stupid. Gods, had he thought that the condoms would work their magic from their place in his luggage?

“I know it's in vain now, but I swear, I’m usually not careless at all when it comes to things like that!” 

Why that night? 

Of course, the one and only time he let his guard down, he came across a woman who tried to get pregnant. Hylia above, this was a lesson about rash trust.

Daruk let his monologue wash over him with a mixture of concern and pity on his face and Link couldn’t blame him. What was left to say, when you discovered, that your best friend was an idiot?

“She _can_ be very charming.”

A bitter laugh escaped Link’s throat – very charming, indeed. He had left Hyrule with the ghost of her kiss still lingering on his lips, a love bite on his neck, and a fond smile on his face. Several days later, Urbosa had still caught him grinning from the afterglow, but she had assumed that he had been eager to begin the project. Zelda had been full of energy, smart and flirty, but easy to talk to and funny, too. If it hadn’t been his last evening in Hyrule, he would have asked her out without a second thought – it had been a shame to waste a woman like her for casual sex.

“Do you think, she pretended everything to get in my pants? I don’t know, I can’t believe that, despite everything. But… she _was_ very forward at some point in the evening.”

Daruk shook his head slowly from one side to the other. “Her wording is quite clear, but I don’t know.”

Link doodled with the laces of his sneakers. Perhaps she wasn’t the amazing woman, he had seen that evening. Perhaps he had built up an image of her in his memories, which couldn’t stand the reality. Perhaps she had perfidiously planned to find a father for her child and he had been her victim.

Another silence stretched and this time, Daruk broke it with a question, neither of them had dared to ask until now. “What… what are you gonna do now? About... about Tetra, I mean.”

Link inhaled deeply and suppressed the urge to shout ‘run’. He looked through the kitchen window, his gaze lingering on the shimmering air above Death Mountain. Had Daruk chosen this apartment because he could see the volcano from here? Perhaps he felt nearer to his family with his home in vision.

Family. 

A well-known hollowness began to spread in his chest and he stared in the everlasting glow of Daruk’s home until his eyes burned.

“I don’t know how to do that – _family_ ”, he whispered, while Daruk started reluctantly to pat his back with too much force to soothe his agitated heart.


	7. Chapter 7

Once his mind had caught up to the fact, that he had just filed in Daruk’s apartment like a hurricane, Link gathered his stuff and promised to keep his friend up to date. He walked the way from Daruk’s apartment back to his hotel, hoping the fresh air would help to get him sober again. The bike was out of options now anyway. Did he expect drinking would solve any of this? A fine father he was. He couldn’t even take care of his own problems without doing something stupid. 

After opening the door to his hotel room, he let himself fall face-first on the bed. 

Was this happening? 

The sheets and the cushion of his hotel bed smelled as clean and tidy as always and still - nothing would be as always ever again. 

He fingered his phone out of his pocket and opened a text message for Urbosa. It was to no avail, he needed to talk to Zelda. Urbosa would surely help him out with her address. Or should he phone Urbosa and ask further questions? She would know a thing or two about Tetra and perhaps even about Zelda’s behavior. No – more rumors and half-truths wouldn’t help him. Zelda was the only one who could shed light on this matter, and he needed _answers_ before he could go back. About that night, about his daughter, about what now. 

_His daughter_. How strange and weird that still sounded – even a couple of hours after thinking it for the first time. 

Well, he mused as a sardonic laugh left him, normally you have at least a couple of months of pregnancy to accustom yourself to become a father, you don’t start with a three-year-old child. 

He gathered all memories of Zelda from that night he had, beginning with her  rapturous smile when she had leaned further in his arm at the bar over the way her cocktail dress had accentuated her figure, and tried to build up an imagine of her with a baby bump in his mind. Oh, that hadn’t been the best idea... suddenly, a tugging emptiness started to spread in his stomach until it crushed over him like an ocean wave. So many of his men in Termina described the birth of their children as the most important, outstanding, the best day in their lives even, and he had always let wash these stories over him. But now? Now he slowly realized that he had missed the birth of his daughter. And not only that, he had missed _everything_ in her life until now. 

Her first steps, where did she make them? What was her first word? Her first food? What was her favorite lullaby as a baby? Did she cry at night as a new-born? Could _he_ have soothed her? Would she have liked to be carried around in a baby sling? Did she have a special stuffed animal or a blanky for her bedtime routine? 

He tried and failed to swallow the lump in his throat. Why was he moved by these images at all? He didn’t know Tetra, where did this hole in his stomach come from? He pressed his trembling hands to his eyes to stop them from shedding tears. This was ridiculous, he grieved for something he knew nothing about. Something he didn’t _want_ to know anything about. 

Was it like that, being a father? Caring, no matter what? He stared at his wet hands before he wiped them on the sheets and leaned himself on the top of his hotel bed. 

He had never seen himself with a family. It wasn’t that he disliked the idea in general, it just never... was his priority. That was all, wasn't it? He was a wild spirit and his former relationships had always lacked this last spark of seriousness, you needed to tie the knot. Especially in Termina, he had been extremely busy with building up the base and leading his team, not to mention the weeks he had spent somewhere in the wild, his equipment his only companion. The last try with Ilia had shown so much – he wasn’t ready to think about things like that. Who knew if he ever would be? He had never missed something. In all these years, a mindless shrug had been his only answer, when someone had asked him about having children. 

His weary eyes glanced at the pastel-colored walls, at the paintings, chosen to please everyone, at the faceless furniture he had seen in countless hotel rooms before. He had stopped going to the hotel bar for small talk with random guests when his smile had become forced. Grabbing a pillow and hugging it, the starchy fabric wrinkled under his arms, and he was hit again by the clean smell. 

He tossed the pillow to the other side of the too-soft bed. 

What was wrong with him? 

All these years, he had pressed himself to reach goal after goal and now he could do all the stuff that he loved in his working hours. So many teenagers dreamed of becoming an explorer, and he had achieved that and more! He  treasured his job, being on the road was part of it, and he loved that, too. Travelling light - the famous explorer motto that every newbie received on a slate and that hung over his kitchen door - he had lived up to that over the last years. And he had been proud to do that!

Still, he hadn’t missed how his co-workers interrupted their chit-chat, when he, the man in charge, joined them on their weekly team-building evening. Was that the reason he had limited his private life to video calls with Daruk and Mipha?

He had worked so hard to reach this point. Fulfilling his dreams, shouldn’t that be enough to make him happy? 

It had been enough yesterday. Why not today? 

How could the mischievous glint in the eyes of a toddler change that? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We flip back to Zelda's POV in the next chapter and let Link sort out his wooly thoughts on his own for this evening.


	8. Chapter 8

Zelda’s pace was quick when she made her way to the labs. She was a bit late, like nearly every day. Tetra always needed her time to detach herself from her and Zelda never had the heart to speed up the progress. 

“Morning, Urbosa!”, she shouted while hurrying past the bureau of her godmother. 

“Zelda? Could I talk to you for a moment?” Urbosa held the door to her office open. 

Zelda entered the well-known room, but something was off. For the first time, the accurately sorted shelves and the vibrant colors of the tapestry were denying the soothing effect they normally had on Zelda. Urbosa had consoled her so often in this room, uncounted times during her unhealthy marriage and the following break-up. She had confessed her pregnancy here and Urbosa had helped her through her restart after Tetra’s birth, too, but today, Urbosa’s voice had a strained edge. 

She shoved the unpleasant feeling aside. “Good morning, Urbosa. Will it take long? Robbie texted me, that we received samples from one of the Termina explorers and I’m eager to see the new stuff.” 

“Yeah, Link Forester is on a two-week vacation in town and delivered them yesterday.” 

Zelda froze on her way to Urbosa’s desk and tried to cover the sharp breath she had inhaled with a cough. 

Hylia, no. He shouldn’t be here. He mustn’t be here! No, no, no. 

She tried to calm her ragged breath. Urbosa didn’t know, but if she continued to be so suspicious, she would wonder if something was off. Link had to be someone she knew from gossip and the reports in their intranet, nothing more. Nobody knew about their one-nighter. Nobody suspected that he was Tetra’s father, including himself. He didn’t even know that she had a child. He would be gone in two weeks, nothing would change. 

Urbosa closed the door behind her and crossed her arms. “He was, well, _surprised_ might be an understatement, to see Tetra’s photo on your desk.” 

Zelda slowly turned around; her face carefully controlled. Inhale – exhale. She had practiced a façade for years now, she would be able to keep that up for the next few minutes, no matter how violently her hands wanted to tremble. _Mind over heart over body._

“Since when it is forbidden to have a picture of my daughter on my desk in this company?” 

Urbosa looked even more severe now. “He _knows_ , Zelda. Did you think he was all brawn and no brains and would never figure this out? He is our best explorer for a reason, it took him less than a minute to put two and two together.” She shook her head, “I don’t know what came over you, Zelda, I used to believe that I had taught you better values than tricking someone in a fatherhood.” 

She hadn’t… that wasn’t... oh gods. 

Breathing became harder and harder. _Inhale – exhale._

_He knew._ He knew and Urbosa would surely have told him everything _she_ knew. The truth she _believed_ to know. What Zelda herself had told everybody. She couldn’t fight against the tightening of her guts anymore. She had never meant that it reached _him_. He shouldn’t be here! 

It did not matter. _Mind over heart over body._

“You know that I would have long moved to Hateno with Tetra if not for this cursed trial with Ganondorf. He would never have found out. He will go back to Termina anyway.” 

Urbosa stared at her. “Really now? I can’t see why that would change anything. You tell yourself these lies for the last four years now, don’t you?” She pressed her palms on her eyes and made a strangled noise. “And with Link, of all people! The poor boy has a heart of gold and you, you… Zelda, I can’t believe you. I have no idea how, but you are going to fix this.” 

Fix it? Zelda’s vision began to turn red and her cheeks heated up. There was nothing to fix. Why would he care, anyway? He did neither know her nor Tetra. And she didn’t care either. Her life was complicated enough, she had not the energy to deal with reproaches from somebody who knew nothing, _nothing!_ about her life. Characteristic of Urbosa and her stupid faith in the good of people. 

Zelda tried to catalyze her anger with a snort, “And what do you suggest? He is going to marry me, and we take some nice family photos? This is real life, Urbosa”, she spat and rolled her eyes to underline that the conversation was over for her. “If that’s all, I would like to work now. Tomorrow is the last day of hearings in the trial with Ganondorf and I must attend court and won’t get anything done here.” 

She straightened her back and tried not to shrink under Urbosa’s stern gaze until her friend gave up and changed the topic. 

“How are things going at court? The judge won’t give him the right of custody for Tetra, will he? I mean, that would be absurd since he isn't her father and all. Does he even know her name?” 

Zelda sighed deeply, the outcome of the trial was something she avoided thinking about. “I pray he will not, but he is very fond of the idea, that the wrong father is better than none father for a child.” 

Urbosa raised her eyebrows at her in concern. “I still don't understand why he even tries to get the custody. What does he want?” 

“Revenge? Or perhaps he really wants me back, who knows."

"You?" Urbosa inhaled sharply. "Your station."

"Sure. It was never about me."

"So, what would it mean if he gets the custody?"

Dread crept over Zelda’s back until it reached her heart, clutching it with an iron fist. "The judge will give him the right to get her every second weekend. I fear … “, she exhaled a shuddering breath and pressed her eyes shut. “I fear that he'll pick her up and won't bring her back.” 

For a long moment, they were both silent. 

Zelda tried to steel herself against that awful possibility. “But I won’t let this happen. No one is going to steal my daughter from me.” 

“I wish I could say that for her real father, too”, Urbosa murmured, but Zelda shoved the opening through which she could see the irony of the situation close as fast as she could. 


	9. Chapter 9

Link still hadn’t decided, how to start the conversation with Zelda when he removed his motorcycle helmet in front of her building. He had spent half of the night pondering over the first lines, but here, only a few steps away from his destination, his mind was too blank and his breath too short. Usually, he liked to think that retracing the steps of the ancient Heroes rubbed off a little of their courage on him, but while he was looking for Zelda’s last name on the huge doorbell panel, it took him one look on his trembling index finger to prove that black was white. Diving through muddy water to seek a hidden door was one thing, but seeing his one-night-stand again, who was now the mother of his child, was another. 

He tried to soothe himself by clinging to familiar habits and took his environment in. Zelda wouldn’t be overly pleased when he threw up on her doorstep instead of a first line. 

The building wasn’t overly large or new, but well-kempt. In a small dooryard with some fern plants behind a low brick wall, someone had sowed a line of wildflowers behind the fern, decorated with a hand-written sign which read ‘save the bees!’. Due to the season, most of them were withered, but some still braved the cold air. He nearly smiled at the sight, maybe Tetra and Zelda had done this? Immediately, his guts tightened, and he was on the brink of backtracking again. Talking to Zelda – and perhaps even seeing Tetra – would make things real. 

There was no going back after that. 

His index finger hovered a long moment over her bell-button, but then he took a breath and pushed it down. The door opener buzzed and someone called, ‘Second floor!’. 

His nausea increased with every step he took on the cold, white marble stairs. One, two, three… The flight of stairs stretched endlessly, or he was stretching them, he wasn’t certain. Eighteen, nineteen, twenty. 

After what felt like hours, he forced himself to draw his gaze up from the steps and knew instantly that he had arrived at the right door: a small Blondie with striking blue eyes greeted him. 

Tetra. 

His heart skipped and skipped and skipped and his breathing stopped altogether. That was – he had – he had to say something. 

She raised her brows and called, “Mommy, that’s not my parcel.” 

Link closed his mouth again. Oh. 

The white apartment door opened further and revealed Zelda. 

“Oh.” 

Link’s heart did a little flip again before he took her in. She looked more mature now – it must be her much shorter hair, cut in a chin-long bob. Her skinny jeans and her blue shirt had seen better days, but she still looked as stunning as in her cocktail dress four years ago. 

“Your hair, it... it suits you”, Link managed and gestured at her. 

He took a shaky breath. Better than throwing up. 

“Who is that, Mommy?” Tetra asked curiously, scanning him from head to toe. Link’s eyes flashed over to her again, and he tried to smile through his nausea at her in response. 

“Nobody, darling. Do me a favor and go back to Grandpa for a moment.” 

Link’s breath stuttered again, and he nearly dropped his motorcycle keys. Did she just say _nobody_? 

“Did Urbosa send you?”, she spat, when Tetra had left the door. “Tell her, I, the person in question, am fine. Save your breath, I don't need another one to tell me what a failure I am.” 

Link blinked and stared at her. Please, what? Why was she so mad, so aggressive? It had been her idea that he fathered her child, not his! She had put him in this situation and now she yelled at him before he could say a word? Did she consider his feelings about all this for one moment in the last four years? He wanted to say something, anything, but his tongue was glued to the roof of his mouth. 

And she wasn’t finished yet. 

“Why are you even here? You’ll leave for Termina again next week, and we will disappear from your life like before. So, stop following me”, and with that, she slammed the door shut. 

Link stared at the door leaf with his mouth still formed to an ‘o’ for several moments. 

_What?_ Did she… did she just lock him out? Why? Why did she hate him? He had done nothing wrong, had he? Why was she pushing him away? 

He leaned his arm on her door frame, the cold metal matching the cold which was slowly creeping over him, and laid his forehead against his arm, keys still in his hand. With his eyes pressed shut, he let the minutes pass in dead silence, only interrupted through his breath and the buzzing of the neon lamp on the ceiling. 

Despite the absolute silence – or perhaps because of that – he was nearly sure, that she still stood directly at the other side of the door. His fingers tingled with the urge to do something, anything, to simply act, but he quashed it. He didn’t dare to make the first move again and knock. 

When the neon lamp at the ceiling went out with a loud click, and he was left with the dim light of the emergency signs, he forced himself to go. She had made it very clear, that she didn’t want to see him. No matter what he did right now, it would only make everything worse.

He had to rethink this. 

Curse you, courage. 

His ride home was nothing but a blur. He was nearly surprised when his phone rang next to his head, and he found himself on the hotel bed once again, his arm covering his eyes. 

He blindly touched the surface with his middle finger to answer the call and didn’t even attempt to turn his head to see the caller's ID. He didn’t care who it was anyway.

“Forester?” 

“Hey Link, it’s Urbosa.” 

“Hm.” 

“Link? Are you ok?” 

“No. I’m not. Far from it. Not that anybody cares, but, no, I am not ok.” 

“You talked to Zelda?” 

“Yes. Well, no. I tried, but she wouldn’t let me get a word in edgewise before she slammed the door in my face.” 

Link heard several curses in Gerudo on the other end of the line, mainly something he would sugarcoat as ‘stupid, stubborn girl’. 

“If you want to put it that way, I won’t argue”, he sighed. 

“Oh. Sorry, I wasn’t aware you would understand that.” 

“Urbosa? You know I was on the Seven Heroine Team before my project in Termina? That’s where we met, after all.” 

Honestly, the day when he would misstep on one of those cliffs and found his end, they would put a note in the intranet and that would be all that was left of his life. If he was very lucky, Urbosa would comp a death notice in the newspaper. “We were deeply saddened by the news of Link’s passing.” And that was it.

Perhaps he should call Mipha, she at least would care about him. He pressed his arm harder into his eyes. He wasn’t sure if he had the energy to relive the story again. Mipha… she was such a kind, innocent soul and had never left the close-knitted community of Zora’s domain. Alone the concept of a one-night-stand would surely repel her. No… he would have to tell her eventually, but he would have to sort things out before. 

Startling, he realized that Urbosa was still on the line when she spoke again. 

“Uh, yes, how could I forget my sweetheart in traditional Gerudo wear?” 

“Urbosa, please. Why did you call me? I’m not in a mood for teasing. Or anything else, for that matter”, he sighed again. She probably wanted to cheer him up, but that was a hopeless case right now. 

“Yeah, well, I suppose, the timing couldn’t be worse, but here we are. You have to know something about Zelda and Tetra and since it is very urgent, I need to talk to you. To be honest, I’m on the way to your hotel room right now.” 

“And you think I will open the door for you?” Really, this day couldn’t get worse anymore. He just wanted to have some peace and quiet to scream in his – well, the hotel’s – pillow. Or to punch it. Whatever helped to ease this feeling of dread in his guts. If the room service could bring him ice cream and toppings? 

“Link, please.” This time, he heard her voice not only from the speaker of his phone but from the other side of his door, too. 

“No”, he groaned. 

Urbosa ended the call and knocked urgently on the door. “Link.” 

When he still didn’t open the door, she switched to Gerudo. _“Link, please, we might lose Tetra to Zelda’s ex-husband, who is a Psychopath.”_

Well, obviously the day _could_ get worse. 

Link finally dragged himself from the bed and opened the door. He could hardly blame Zelda for not hearing him out when he did the same to Urbosa. 

“And what am I supposed to do? Pull the master sword and stab him?”, he asked, his voice oozing sarcasm. 

Urbosa smiled a lopsided smile at him. “Well, that’s Plan B. Let me explain Plan A to you.” 

Link rolled his eyes at her and gestured her towards the small desk in his hotel room, “I _pray_ that that one is better.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One angsty chapter left (for Zelda, this time), then it's going to get better (and you'll get a lot of answers to the questions I've build up so far. [not all, don't get your hopes up! still 55.000 words to go!]). So, stick with me a little longer!


	10. Chapter 10

The hard wood of the backrest pressed in Zelda’s back. Although this was a family court and there was technically no dock, they had not attempted to make the places comfortable. Her shoulder blades ached already from the abuse, but she still pressed further. How could she have been so naïve to think that she would get rid of him with the divorce decree? She had ruined his life with her decision to finally break up their marriage, of course, he would hunt her as far as his grasp would reach. Feeling Ganondorf’s stares upon her, she redoubled her effort and dug her heels in the linoleum. _Mind over heart over body._

“I would like to summarize the facts before we pronounce a judgment”, the judge began and Zelda counted the loftwing reliefs behind him on the wooden panels that decorated the walls. “The court has to decide the custody and the right of contact and access for Ganondorf Dragmire to Tetra Agitha Bosphoramus. Tetra Bosphoramus is born within the marriage of Zelda Bosphoramus and Ganondorf Dragmire.”

Nine loftwings. She returned her gaze to the judge. One. One living loftwing would be enough for her to get away, but it was to no avail. She couldn’t escape. Tetra had been born two weeks before her divorce from Ganondorf. Two damned weeks and one day later, and they would have been free. Not for the first time, she cursed herself that filing for divorce hadn't been her first thought when she had finally broken up with Ganondorf. She had lost precious time in these first months in this regard, but taking her first steps without the pressure of her ex-husband or her father had occupied her enough. Finally taking care of herself, living in her own apartment and slowly beginning to heal had been her priorities, and not stupid formalities. Formalities that were her undoing when her life took another twist, but sticking to long made mistakes wouldn't help her in the presence where the judge adressed her.

“As the husband of Ms. Bosphoramus at the time of the birth, Mr. Dragmire applies as the father of Tetra Bosphoramus. Although Ms. Bosphoramus claims that he is not the biological father of her daughter, Mr. Dragmire is the legal father unless proven otherwise.”

The judge raised his eyebrows at her, perhaps to give her a last chance to reveal the identity of Tetra’s true father. She looked away and raised her thumb to retrace her lips, but it was too soft, too self-made, and nowhere close to Link’s respectful gesture when he had brushed her lips with his rough fingers. The bitter-sweetness of her memory left her with a pang: No matter how gentle he had been back then, after all what she had done, he would surely despise her. Nothing would convince him to take on responsibility for a child he hadn’t wanted, who was a stranger to him. She pressed her lips in a thin line to will the tears away  – she would never dare to ask that from him anyway.

“Ms.  Bosphoramus specified several reasons why she would prefer to withhold Mr. Dragmire of the fatherhood, while Mr. Dragmire insists on the custody. I want to underline again, that the court usually follows the opinion that a child should have a father if possible, even if he is not the biological one. But I would like to hear your final statements before we conclude.” 

Oh, how she wished that she couldn’t only press her eyes shut, but her ears, too.  Ganondorf ’s voice wafted through the muggy courtroom like syrup when he lied through his teeth to keep the court on his side. Zelda wasn’t stupid, she knew very well, that she was on the verge of losing the trial. The judge was an old, traditional man, who couldn’t warm up to the idea of a self-imposed single mom.

Ganondorf had used the last three years to enchant the court with his false charm and sweet lies. He left no chance to drop the fact , that he was the cuckolded husband who would take her back despite everything. Of course, he would. If she would cave in, her father would follow the lead and Ganondorf would be back in the game. She stared at the loftwings again. His voice alone brought her to the brink of vomiting, and she wasn’t sure if she could stop it when she looked fully at him. _Mind over heart over body._

Zelda knew the game he was playing all too well, once she had fallen for it herself. Despite the advantage of that knowledge, she and her lawyer hadn’t been able to unmask him. Her lawyer was an old friend of her father and an experienced man, but since she hadn’t wanted to drag Link in their possibilities had been limited. They hadn’t been able to convince the court in the trial so far and today was no exception. She tried as hard as she could to present valid arguments, but she saw no change in the uninterested eyes of the judge. For him, Ganondorf was a charming man who would generously take care of a cuckoo egg in a last attempt to win his ex-wife over again. He couldn't be more wrong.

Her sweaty hands gripped the corners of the desk, her pen, themselves. It could only be minutes now before the court would decide. She desperately tried to stop herself from trembling, because she didn’t want to show  Ganondorf how much power he still had over her. And he hadn't! She would overcome this somehow, like she had overcome so much until today. _Mind over heart over body._

The question was only: how?  A bitter taste settled on her tongue, and she barely suppressed the urge to throw up again. Why did she pass up the chance to talk to Link yesterday? Perhaps she could have let washed his reproaches over her and perhaps if she had begged him, if she had promised to never claim anything from him, perhaps he would have agreed to help them  – no.

This was not how the world was. Just wishful thinking of her foolish, foolish heart. She had sworn to herself to never fall for it again, no matter, how much everything in her had screamed to push the handle down again when she stood behind her apartment door. Oh, and how much had that girlish part of her which was her heart hoped that he would knock a soft pattern against the wood, asking with his caring, gentle voice: 'Zelda?' Of course, he hadn’t. He probably wouldn't even remember her name if Urbosa hadn't told him. No, his duty call was done and that was that. When she heard him leave, she knew that she had lost him  – forever.

Again, she blinked the moisture in her eyes away. In any case, it was useless to ponder over the ifs and buts. She had to find a solution on her own and fast.  Ganondorf was still a powerful man, it would  be nearly impossible to keep Tetra safe from him when he had the law on his side. She looked over to her lawyer, but he wasn’t much of a help anymore. They had discussed every possibility and every outcome countless times, there would be no surprising Plan B. Akkala was a deserted area _and_ they had a lab there...

The judge began speaking again, but Zelda hardly listened. She was so tired of fighting and with the nearing conclusion the full weight of her failure pressed her down. How could she let this happen?  Ganondorf would get his right of access, and unless they would have gone up in smoke until then, he would pick Tetra up on one of ‘his’ weekends and never bring her back. If she refused him, the court would press her until she gave in. Of course, he wasn’t interested in Tetra, he only wanted to hurt _her_. He would force Tetra to live in one of his mansions with no familiar face around her and Zelda had to sue her back somehow. That would take years if it was possible at all. Tetra would be heartbroken. Despaired. Confused. _Alone_. Her breath hitched in her throat when she tried to shove the images away. _Mind_ _ over …  over … _

Ganondorf would make sure that she thought that her mother had left her. Furthermore, he would ensure that the court would see her as an irresponsible mother and that he was the dashing hero who saved a child from neglect. The thought alone was absurd, she adored Tetra more than anything. The idea of her precious daughter in the hands of Ganondorf... 

Zelda tried and tried to push the thoughts back. Now even her mind didn’t obey her anymore. Or perhaps it was her heart fighting back, she smiled through the nausea despite herself. She never used her mantra on Tetra.

The click of a side door brought her back. Someone had passed the judge a note. Perhaps she was granted a moment of delay because the judge had to answer an urgent phone call.

“Please excuse me for a moment, I have to clarify a formality.” That’s one way to put it when your wife called and asked what you like for dinner, Zelda snorted and inwardly raised her brow. 

She felt  Ganondorf’s eyes on her again, when the man returned. She took a shuddering breath and pressed  in the wood behind her again. She would not break down here, not in front of him. _Mind over heart over body._

Behind her, the cameras of the reporters began to click and the sound was awfully loud in her ears. Three years ago,  Ganondorf had requested to permit onlookers and the press since he claimed himself as a ‘public person’ and with that from public interest. Of course, the trial didn't bring them solely positive media mentions, but as they said: there was no such thing as bad press. Her lawyer had strongly advised her to deny the request, but she hadn't cared. To refuse would have only meant an even longer trial. They weren't interested in her anyway. Nobody knew her if she hadn't a ‘ex-wife of' or ‘daughter of' in front of her name in the articles, so why bother? She just wanted to live a peaceful life with her daughter, was that too much to ask?

The judge caught her eye when he gestured for the photographs to stop.

“I have to apologize for the disturbance again. I had to examine the procedural rules since I haven’t witnessed something like this in my time in court. But since we don’t have a judgement yet, we are all clear.” 

She shuddered and asked herself how much more she was able to take. Was that another trick of  Ganondorf? He already had the judge on his side, what more could he want? She didn’t dare to look fully at him, because of the vomiting problem, but  Ganondorf looked as puzzled as she. That was odd. But what could – 

“Sir? Please take your seat over there.”

When she turned in the direction the judge was speaking, she barely stopped herself from grabbing her lawyer's arm while her other hand tried to stifle the gasp that escaped her.

Her body _saw_ , her heart _knew_ , but her mind refused to _understand_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the cliffhanger, especially since I'm not sure if I will manage to post this weekend, but I assume you all have your suspicions what will happen next.
> 
> I know that the setting of this (and the next) chapter is a bit of a stretch. So, if anyone of you is a lawyer or something similar, I apologize in advance for sacrificing plot over reality. Due to my work, I've been in court a dozen times perhaps (but no family court luckily), so I have a general idea how things are working and I hope it's close enough to not being a bother to someone.  
> The a-wrong-father-is-better-than-none-father-thing however is something that is very real! At least the German state prefers it that way, because then there is someone who can be held responsible for it. I had countless files on my desk dealing with this kind of stuff in my former workplace!


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My husband is occupying the switch, so I can as well give you some new stuff to read. :)

With confident steps, the man she thought she would never see again made his way over to a chair and desk in the middle of the courtroom.

Link.

Link was here.

Even when he had long sat down, she could do nothing but stare at him. At his neat ponytail, at the matching clothes, from a pair of blue jeans, over a sky-blue button-down shirt to a dark blue jacket. She even stared at his blue cuff links. Why? Oh. Because they matched his earrings and his eyes.

She had hardly cast a glance at him yesterday, too shocked about his sudden appearance, but looking at him now, she couldn’t deny that he was still incredibly handsome. Probably even more than four years ago, if that was possible. It was a silly thing to think when she was about to lose a fight of such importance, but she couldn't help it. His jawline was a little less smooth and although his hair was even longer now, he looked more masculine and less boyish. The shirt and the jacket suited him perfectly and underlined his well-trained body subtly.

He had the boldness to smirk at the court.

Oh, yes, his looks were definitively one of the reasons they were spending their time here in the first place.

The sound of a fist striking on a wooden desk shook her out of her daydream. Ganondorf was about to raise his voice, too, but the judge held up his hand to silence him. Zelda still couldn’t blink. Link’s neat style made Ganondorf in his ill-fitted designer suit look like a trainee who had mistaken the doors.

Zelda glanced back, reassuring herself that Link was still here. Her heart beat so intensely, that she could barely breathe. Ganondorf didn’t know about Link. This _couldn’t_ be another threat of Ganondorf.

“Mr. Forester, we need your full name, age, address, profession, and relation to one of the interested parties, if any. I remind you, that you have the duty to tell the truth in this court.”

Link spoke with a clear and loud voice, which calmed Zelda’s thundering heartbeat word for word. “My name is Link Forester, I’m 29 years old. My current address is the Grand Hotel in Castletown since I arrived from long-term employment in Termina only three days ago. I work as an explorer for the National Museum of Hyrule. I am related to Tetra Bosphoramus and that is exactly, why I’m here. I want to acknowledge paternity for her.”

Zelda sagged in her bench, her back finally free from the pressure of the wood. This was too good to be true. She had treated him _horribly_ , but he was here, anyway. Could Urbosa be right? He _had_ enchanted her with his courteous behavior four years ago, but she had always thought that she had made up most of it in the following time. Nobody could be so kind, so gentle, so thoughtful for real. Right? Surely, Urbosa had coaxed him into coming here... but as skeptical as she was, playing the hero couldn’t be the only reason for his coming. Acknowledging paternity for a child was nothing that anyone did without thinking twice about the consequences.

Her string of thoughts was interrupted by her lawyer, who tried to nudge her in her side without attracting attention. “It is him, isn’t it? She has his eyes, so it’s true?”, he whispered.

Zelda was happy that she managed to nod.

“No wonder you hid that traffic stopper abroad”, he chuckled to himself. “Let’s hope that he can convince the judge, so we don’t have to deal with the procedure of an official paternity test.”

Zelda nodded again. If the judge acknowledged Link as Tetra’s father, the trial would end today, and they would be free.

“Your honor! You don’t want to tell me that the court will give credence to a random adventurer? This trial started three years ago! The boy doesn’t even have a proper address. I’m sure, my lovely ex-wife has picked him up on the street, put him in a suit, and has given him a nice little sum to play this spectacle”, Ganondorf spat. Zelda exhaled through her nose. Of course, he would not give up this easily with his goal right in front of him.

“Mr. Dragmire, please keep your temper. I would like to hear what Mr. Forester has to say before I come to any conclusions”, the judge interjected firmly. “Mr. Forester, I have to admit that Mr. Dragmire has a point. You could have ended this trial three years ago. You must agree, that you are a little late to the party?”

Zelda couldn’t believe her ears. Did he just mock Link? He was a _judge_ ; he was supposed to be neutral! Oh, no, this couldn’t go wrong! An official paternity test would cost several weeks, perhaps even months, and Link’s time in Hyrule was running short. Who knew if he wouldn’t change his mind in the meantime?

“Your honor, I understand that this must appear as a sudden twist to you. Let me explain to you a few things and you will see that everything will fall into place.”

The judge began a game of Dodge and Parry with Link, asking him about his long absence, why he never acknowledged the paternity, and so on and on. Link was nothing less than impressive. He took his time to explain his project in Termina, causing the onlookers to gasp when they realized that Link’s team was the one who had discovered the famous relict ‘Majora’s Mask’, an incident that filled the newspapers for weeks. Picturing himself as a workaholic who spent his time exploring dungeons or somewhere in the wild in another country, he admitted that she had hardly been able to contact him.

She nearly believed him.

He reframed the facts of their encounter at her door that it looked like he had rushed to their side as soon as he knew about his fatherhood. And well – he had, but she had locked him out. He left that out. It didn't slip her attention that he didn’t even put her down once. It would have been unwise in front of the court, but still.

The judge was relentless, but Link was better. He answered a never-ending flow of questions, illustrated them both as responsible adults as far as his information was able to cover. Every time the judge pointed at a gap in his story, Link turned the attention to Ganondorf and his dishonest motives. He asked rhetorical questions about the gifts Ganondorf had given Tetra for her birthdays, about how often he had tried to establish a relationship with her, and why he hadn’t done anything in this regard if he wanted to be her father so urgently that he even started a trial. Answer for answer, the mood in the courtroom turned.

Only the judge wasn’t convinced, as it seemed. “Mr. Forester, I still ponder about some inconsistencies concerning your relationship with Ms. Bosphoramus. You were gone for four years, that’s hardly a base to raise a child.”

Link shifted on his chair only slightly, but his whole attitude changed. His posture strained, the muscles on his back and his arms tensed, his head jerked an inch upward, while his eyes narrowed. His voice had an icy edge when he began to speak. Zelda shuddered and a glance around showed her that she was not the only one.

“With due respect, your honor, but I would really have preferred, that you had shown this elaborateness regarding Mr. Dragmire, too.”

A few of the onlookers gasped at his harsh words and the judge raised his eyebrows.

“He insulted his ex-wife in front of the court not a half hour ago and suspected her of bribery and perjury, which – you have to admit – is hardly a sign of a trustful partnership.”

He paused to let his words sink in.

“I told you, that my job contains a good deal of researching and I stumbled over some things the court might be interested in. I took the trouble to read some of these ‘exclusive stories’ from the Gerudo tabloid press, of which Mr. Dragmire seems to be overly fond of. I found not less than ten, in which Mr. Dragmire is quoted speaking ill about his ex-wife.”

He waved with a gossip paper he had prepared on his table, flipped it open like he was sitting on a breakfast table on a Sunday morning, and read a passage aloud in fluent Gerudo. Ganondorf had gotten pale and tried again to stare the unimpressed Link down.

Translating the words in her head, Zelda allowed herself to smile for the first time today.

“I’m not sure if you are familiar with the language, your honor, but an official translator should solve that problem.” He closed the magazine and put it aside. “Mr. Dragmire confirmed in this interview that he doesn’t care at all for the child.”

Zelda saw Ganondorf uncomfortably shifting on his chair. It was obvious, that he had underestimated Link, too.

“I’m aware that a tabloid press interview may not be a reliable source, so I called the interviewer. She not only confirmed his statement but”, now he grabbed a flash drive with a very smug grin on his face, “she was kind enough to send me the audio recording of the interview. So, if you prefer, you can rehear his words with your own ears. Ah, what else?”

He paused again artificially. “This might be interesting, too, because it wasn’t printed in the interview, it’s only on the audio file. He has recorded there that the whole reason for this trial is to hurt Ms. Bosphoramus as much as possible.” Leaning forward, he stretched the last half-sentence to increase the effect of his words.

In the meantime, the people in the audience couldn’t contain their murmurs anymore. Some even pointed at Ganondorf, who had buried his head in his hands. Probably to hide away from the stares, but perhaps he began to realize, that Link was underway to paint his name black.

“Quiet down, please! Mr. Forester is not finished yet”, the judge called.

“Thank you, your honor.” Link nodded at the judge. “Unfortunately, I had not much time for my research. Nonetheless, I discovered that Ms. Bosphoramus filed a complaint against her ex-husband three and a half years ago. Of course, I couldn’t find further information because of privacy protection, but you should be able to verify that yourself.”

Over the time he spoke, the icy edge of his voice had vanished, but for the last blow, he froze the judge in place with a mere look of his blue eyes. Zelda asked herself, if one day, Tetra would be able to do that, too.

“So, you worry about my relationship with Ms. Bosphoramus?”, he said slowly and deliberately, “I ensure you; we are on better terms than that.”

‘He is our best explorer for a reason.’ Urbosa’s words echoed in Zelda’s mind when she sank on the bench. Link had used his research abilities to bring Ganondorf down. He was smart, it was one of the few things she knew about him at all, but the performance he had delivered today had been more than smart – it had been brilliant. He had destroyed Ganondorf by using his failures and attacks against him and with that, he had covered the fact that his own relationship with her was quasi non-existent.

The judge raised his eyebrows at her and she managed to nod and smile the best smile she could muster. Link relaxed on his chair, but her thoughts were already elsewhere again.

How did he accomplish this task in mere hours? No way he hadn’t worked through the night to be prepared like this in the morning. And still, coming up with a strategy and collecting the facts was one thing, presenting them like this was another. He had cornered Ganondorf and had the tip of his sword on his throat, figuratively speaking, not hesitating to go for the final blow, if he thought it was needed.

Zelda shuddered again. Would she escape one dangerous man only to have to deal with the next? He came to help Tetra, but was there something left for her but hate? She had never contacted him, she had pushed him away, she had ruined his life … Over the years, she had tried to shove every thought about him aside, but his appearance forced her to deal with the rumbling in her guts.

The nausea which had a lock of her for the last days lifted from her, but true relief failed to appear. Link had saved the day. Under no circumstances she would lose the trial now, and she doubted that the judge would put them through the effort of a paternity test. She wouldn’t lose Tetra – and that was Link’s credit alone. But what was left to say between them besides that? He must have known that he would have to deal with her afterward when he came here.

She would do her part.

After all that he had done for them, she had at least to try to apologize, even if he didn't want to hear it.

Exhaling slowly, the idea of apologizing gave her finally a little peace. The air in the courtroom changed from stuffy to warm, and she could have sworn, that the loftwings behind the judge hadn’t had a friendly face before. Talking to Link was worth a shot. Someone Urbosa held in high regard, who was friends with Daruk and who came to rescue his daughter despite everything could not be cruel like Ganondorf. And if he truly despised her, she… she could learn to deal with that.

Perhaps Link had felt her eyes on him because he turned towards her for the first time in the hearing. Now, his piercing blue eyes nailed her in place and her heart did a backflip. His expression was unreadable, but these eyes, oh, how often had she seen laughter and sadness and rage and love in these eyes, but it was not her daughter looking at her. She half feared he would try to intimate her, but to her surprise, his gaze softened instead.

The urge to avert her eyes to avoid the shame grew nearly unbearable, but it was impossible to look away. She couldn’t keep him out, her emotions laid bare in front of him like he was looking through one of her microscopes. Just… just like four years ago.

Before she could stop it, her heart went out to him. For a moment, she could feel the anxiety between them, his determination and so much mutual confusion passing through them. Something else lingered in his gaze, a soft spot, a silent hope perhaps, but it was gone too quickly to explore it. He broke the eye contact, looked back at the judge and the moment vanished into thin air. She shut her mouth and blinked to force her eyes back to their normal place.

What was _that?_

Link didn’t give her time to ponder.

“Your honor”, he began, “I am not here for a personal favor or a benefit for me, I came here for only one reason: because I care. Please keep that in mind in your judgment. Thank you, that’s all.”

The judge cleared his throat and rearranged his flawless robe.

“Very well then. Mr. Forester, I have to admit, that you are a remarkable young man. It took you just an hour to highlight the weak points of this trial. I would say, you ruined the work of three years, but since each of your points came with a solution as well, you are apologized”, the judge smiled. Zelda shook her head in disbelief. The judge hadn’t smiled in three cursed years.

“Your testimonial is closed now, so you can leave your place. You may stay in the area of the onlookers, as I can imagine, you are interested in our judgment, too. We are going to withdraw for consultations now.”

Zelda tried to make eye-contact with Link, as he made his way back to the other end of the courtroom, but he seemed to be focused on finding a seat. Or did he avoid her gaze on purpose? And was this new tug in her stomach disappointment? Why? She sighed quietly. If they had met under better circumstances, in another life where she had been a careless girl, a normal woman, perhaps…

Her lawyer interrupted her again.

“Wow. That was… impressive at least. I’ve not seen many lawyers perform better, to be honest.” He shook his head as if still in disbelief. “Now, that the identity of Tetra’s father is disclosed, I must admit that I’m a bit curious. Why did you break up, if the question is not too private? He seems to care genuinely, perhaps you should start over.”

Zelda opened and closed her mouth like a fish and tried to focus on her lawyer’s face. She had not yet get used to the idea, that everybody knew that Link was Tetra’s father. She had kept that secret and all the feelings which came with it, for so long, that she wasn’t prepared for questions. It didn’t help that the situation was completely odd because she knew nearly nothing about the man who came to her aid so suddenly.

For one moment, she thought back at the confusion, which flashed through his eyes yesterday, when she yelled at him. If she wanted to be fair towards him from now on, she had to stick to the truth, and perhaps she should start right now with her lawyer.

“Well…to be honest…I met him on his last evening in Hyrule. I knew him by sight because we are kind of co-workers, and he is quite the legend at our employer, but… well.”

“Are... are you trying to tell me, that he’s a – what’s the name for that – _one-night-stand?_ ”, the lawyer stared at her with wide eyes.

“Uhm, yes. That’s it. Part of the reasons, why I hadn’t wanted to contact him.” Zelda felt herself flush from head to toe and back. This was behind embarrassing.

“I deeply apologize for my nosiness. Well, it was just such a sudden twist.” He cleared his throat. “I would have preferred that you tell me that he was going to acknowledge the paternity. Would have spared my nerves.”

Oh, gods, talking about it made the whole story even more horrible. She retraced the texture of the wooden table with her index finger.

“I didn’t know either. We didn’t talk yesterday, I just”, she pressed her eyes shut. Her voice was barely a whisper. “I just told him to stay away.”

“Ms. Bosphoramus…”, the lawyer said nothing for a long moment, gathering his thoughts. Heat prickled on her cheeks, but she didn’t try to will it away. The rush of shame was well deserved.

“It’s not my place to give you a piece of advice concerning your private life. But as your lawyer… please promise me, that we won’t meet here again to dispute with Mr. Forester on a similar topic.” Zelda shrank under his concerned, stern gaze and nodded firmly. When she made no other attempt to answer, he continued cautiously. “Congratulations on your little girl, by the way. I bet he makes a great father once he gets used to it, too.”

Zelda swallowed dryly. She was so overwhelmed over the fact, that she would not lose Tetra that she had shoved the real reason for that to the corner of her mind.

Link would be the official father of her child now. And if she didn’t mistake his last sentence and the reason for his coming today, he cared at least to some degree. That meant, he would want to see Tetra. Probably even regularly, as long as his work would allow it. Taking her for a weekend to Faerie-Land, vacation with her in the summer break to the beach (something that she would never be able to effort), and being the splendid part-time-Daddy who let her eat sweets as much as she wanted. Perhaps he wanted to celebrate Hylia's Eve with her, and then she … she was left with Din's Day. She swallowed again. Hard. As much as she loathed these thoughts – he had a right to see his daughter and after all, she couldn’t, wouldn't deny him that.

She wasn't a single mother anymore.

_Everything would change._

She would have to deal with Link at least for the important decisions in Tetra’s life. He would become a part of her life, of their life if she wanted or not. When the judge came back and declared indeed Ganondorf’s claim rejected, she still wasn’t sure what to make with this information.


	12. Chapter 12

When Zelda finally was able to leave the courtroom, the foyer was crowded with people. Thanks to Link, her trial had taken much more time than scheduled and now, interested parties from two trials flooded the room. Nonetheless, Zelda was able to spot Urbosa immediately. She had asked her to pick up Tetra from her nanny, should the trial overrun it's time. Zelda hurried over to her and Tetra and pulled them both into a hug. 

“Thank you, Urbosa”, she said, having her daughter so close leaving her voice thick with emotion, “I have no idea how you mastered this miracle. I was ready to go into hiding with Tetra.” 

“You don’t have to thank me, Zelda. I just informed Link about your situation. It’s his credit. Thank Hylia, that he is as stubborn as you. I don’t want to know, what that means for our little bird here”, she laughed heartily and let Tetra down from her arm, who clung immediately at Zelda. Urbosa raised Zelda's chin with her index. “I trust you that you know what to do now, Zelda. I do understand where you come from, but not everybody is like Ganondorf.” She dropped her finger and a reassuring smile turned her mouth upwards. “I can only do so much, the rest is up to you two.” 

“I’m sorry”, she sighed. “I guess I needed a wake-up call.” 

“Well, don’t apologize to me.” 

Urbosa turned around and snapped her fingers. 

“Now, if we don’t have the man of the day here! Link, my boy”, she hugged him, “you were brilliant, but I expected nothing less from you. Don’t know what we had done without you.” The rest of her speech was muffled in the hug before Urbosa released Link. 

“Couldn't have done it without the head start you gave me”, he smiled sheepishly at her. 

In the same moment, Urbosa took a step back to reveal her and Tetra, Link’s jaunty attitude vanished completely, and he grew stiff. It was a heart-breaking difference and the truth was very unsettling: she had done this to him. 

“Uhm, hi”, he greeted Zelda while scratching his neck. 

“Hey”, Tetra interrupted and pulled on his sleeve, “you are Mr. Nobody from yesterday, right?” She giggled. “Auntie Urbosa said that you saved Mommy today. That’s awesome!” She clasped her tiny hands in front of her. 

Oh, that was not how Zelda had planned this. Well, she hadn’t planned anything yet, because she hadn’t thought of the fact, that Link and Tetra might meet here and now. She opened her mouth to interrupt, but Link was faster. 

He laughed and crouched down to be at Tetra’s eye-level. “You can call me Link if you want”, he smiled at her. “Your Mommy is a  tough woman. She doesn’t need to be saved. I just helped her to set something very important aright.” 

Zelda first stared at him, then at Urbosa, who only shrugged and mouthed, ‘told you!’. Looking back at Link, an insight settled slowly in her rattled mind. The trial was closed, he didn’t need to convince someone else. Was … was she wrong? Maybe … 

She couldn’t hinder her foolish heart to speak up again. It sent a warmth through her veins – hope. 

Tetra giggled again. “Ok, Mr. Link!” 

“You must be Tetra, then, am I right?” 

“Yes, I am Tetra Bosphoramus and I am three years old!” She proudly held three fingers up. 

“That’s awesome, Tetra”, Link copied her and smiled broadly at the small girl. When she returned her attention to Zelda, he stood up, and suddenly, he was nervous all over again. Oh, she had to fix – 

“Now, now, if we don’t have the happy family here.” Ganondorf’s oily voice cut through the awkward moment. Zelda pushed Tetra back in Urbosa’s arms and stepped forward, instinctively searching Link’s proximity to shield Tetra from Ganondorf. 

“Really now, Zelda? You prefer a twink like him over me?” 

“One step nearer and you’ll get another complaint, this time because of stalking, Ganondorf,” Zelda answered coldly, Link’s calm presence helping her to force the dread away. They had many things to clarify, but this was none of them. 

“We could have ruled the world together, but you had to throw away everything we had for cheap sex with a clown.” He turned his gaze to Link and narrowed his eyes at him. “Was it good? To fuck _my wife?_ ” 

Anxiously, she looked from one man to the other. A brawl was the last thing they needed now. But it seemed that Link had a lot of self-control. He shrugged his shoulders demonstratively. “You should have treated her better if you expected her to stay with you, _Mr. Dragmire_.” 

“Zelda, Zelda.” Ganondorf shook his head and attempted to brush her cheek, but suddenly Link stepped up in front of her and caught Ganondorf’s wrist. His blue eyes narrowed, every muscle in his body tensed and Zelda could have sworn that time slowed down. He dragged the much larger man to his eye-level, Ganondorf’s face torn in a comical grimace at the sudden strike, and Link hissed with a dangerous edge in his voice: “If you ever dare to touch Zelda or Tetra again, I will hunt you down until you _beg_ for mercy. We both know that I only scratched the surface. Consider today as a warning about what I am able to do to you.” 

She stared at Link with her mouth open. What was he doing? And what did that mean, only the surface? His reaction seemed a bit over the top to her, nonetheless, she allowed his fierce protectiveness to wash over her – just… just for the moment. 

He pushed Ganondorf away, who snarled a ‘You’ll regret that!’ in Zelda’s direction. It was an empty threat, she knew he would never risk what was left of his reputation, nonetheless she frowned harder. It was very atypical to stomach such a provocation for Ganondorf. Link must know what he was doing.

She looked after her ex-husband until he had left the foyer, feeling Link doing the same next to her. 

Finally, after twelve years, she was free. 

Turning around, she saw Link looking at her unconfidently, his determination gone. 

“I… well, I know what you said yesterday, but… I don’t know, Urbosa told me about this”, he gestured around with his hands, “and I... I couldn’t stand by and do anything. Are you... very mad?” 

He tried to ruffle his hair as if he had forgotten that he had styled it in a neat ponytail. 

Zelda blinked stunned. He had just saved her – their daughter from a psychopath, and he was still worried that she would be _mad_? Well. Her behavior put her in a bad light, so she could hardly blame him for that conclusion. Holy Hylia, she had really screwed this up. 

“Goddess, could you please say something and stop staring at me like I’m a Molduga?”, he continued embarrassed. 

Urbosa elbowed Zelda to get her to speak. 

“Ouch, yes, sorry, it’s my turn now, I suppose, sorry”, Zelda stuttered and tried to shake herself out of her reverie. 

“I’m not mad, of course. It’s just, I’m completely overwhelmed with this situation.” 

“Yeah, tell me about it”, Link snorted. 

Another silence followed, a little less awkward. 

“You two make quite the pair!” Urbosa laughed and shook her head. 

“Urbosa!” Link and Zelda called in unison. 

“See? Don’t forget to invite me to the wedding, my sweethearts! I’m off!” Urbosa sat Tetra down again and was still laughing when she turned around to go. With friends like these, who needed enemies? 

“Mommy, what is a wedding? Can I go there, too?” Tetra asked with wide eyes. 

“Tetra…”, Zelda pressed her eyes shut and exhaled a breath. She was not in a mood to explain the concept of marriage to her daughter. She just wanted to go home and take a bath or a nap or a vacation, best in that order, please. Well, reheating leftovers and playing with Tetra was more likely, but still. No more brain activity, please. 

Again, Link saved her. 

“A wedding is something with that you celebrate that you love each other, Tetra”, Link spoke softly, “but it is not every year like a birthday or Hylia's Eve, only once or”, he stole a glance at her, “twice in your life.” 

He paused, pondering about her second question before his face lit up. “Hey, what about that: If I ever gonna wed, I will invite you, Tetra.” 

“Oh! That would be awesome!” Tetra applauded. 

“Ok, pinky promise?” Link hold his pinky at her. 

“Awesome!”, she giggled and hooked in. 

Link laughed and poked her nose with the index finger of his other hand. “You are awesome, Tetra.” 

Zelda smiled, too. Either Link was very experienced with children, or he was a natural. In both cases, it seemed she didn’t have to worry about the two getting in touch. That left herself and Link to worry about. She had no idea where to begin, but she had to try somehow. 

“Link, I know I can never make it up to you anyway, but I owe you an apology. And several explanations, too, I suppose”, she sighed, clasping her hands in front of her. “I will never forget what you have done for us today.” 

A lump formed in her throat, and she felt the sudden urge to hug him. Surprised, she blinked the tears away. What was wrong with her? Why couldn’t she keep it together around him? 

“Oh.” He was visibly relieved. “I’m just glad if you don’t cast me out anymore.” 

She hesitated a bit, but there was no going back anyway. “Yes, about that... I guess we have some things to talk about, but I don’t think I’m capable to form a clear thought today. Would you mind if we postpone that until tomorrow?” 

“Fine by me”, he smiled and shrugged. “I suppose, it is easier when I come to your apartment? My hotel room might be very boring for you, Tetra.” 

“Yes, that’s a good idea”, Zelda smiled back, his politeness towards them spreading the warmth again. Perhaps this wouldn't end in another disaster. He scratched his neck and Zelda wondered why he was suddenly nervous again. 

“Would you... would you mind terribly, if I bring something to cook? I’m tired of take-away-food and since I don’t have a kitchen in the hotel…” 

That got him worried? Zelda laughed, “As long as it’s edible, we don’t mind at all. Didn’t know you like to cook.” 

“Well”, he sighed before they agreed on a time, “I suppose there are a lot of things we don’t know about each other.” 


	13. Chapter 13

The next day, Tetra was already awaiting Link at her apartment door, when he walked up the stairs. He had been nervous all day, but he was faring far better than the last time, he made his way up these stairs. 

“Hello, Link. Mommy told me, that you eat with us tonight.” 

“Hi. Yes, that’s right. Look,” he showed her the grocery bag he had in his arms, “I bought everything for Wildberry Crêpes. Do you like that?” 

“Hm…” she shrugged her little shoulders, “What is a crap?” 

Link chuckled, “A Crêpe is similar to a pancake. It’s larger but thinner.” 

“Awesome! Crap then today!”, she cheered. 

Link grinned and shook his head. He talked to his daughter for the second time, and she picked a swearword up from him. Zelda was going to kill him when she found out. 

“Uhm, would you let me in, Tetra?” 

“No”, she shook her head, her pigtails bobbing. 

“Oh. Ok.” No way to get past this little bouncer. “Why not?” 

“I’m not allowed to let anybody in. But I can fetch Mommy if you want.” 

“I see. That’s a good thing. Yes, it would be nice if you would fetch her.” 

It was the second time in three days that he stood in front of Zelda’s closed door, but this time, he didn’t feel lost. Zelda wouldn’t lock him out again. 

When he set down the grocery bags on Zelda’s kitchen counter, the biting smell of scouring agent lingered still in her kitchen. The sunk blinked and fresh dishcloths were neatly stacked next to it. Link couldn’t help but wonder if she was always this orderly or if she had cleaned up for him. 

In any case, he was glad that he had suggested cooking for them. He had settled for a vegetable risotto for entrée because he wasn’t sure if the two would eat meat or seafood, and chopping the vegetable busied him enough to keep the nervousness at bay. It seemed that they had an unexpressed agreement not to talk about the difficult questions in front of Tetra. 

So, he found himself preparing the dishes, Tetra doodling with crayons, and Zelda briefing him with some facts of Tetra’s daily routine. He learned that a nanny took care of her when Zelda was at work, but she would go to a kindergarten after the summer holidays. She spent the late afternoons with Zelda and sometimes with Zelda’s father, too. She only began to be interested in other children, so she didn't go to many play dates yet. 

The whole scenery was domestic in a strange way and if Link closed his eyes for a moment, he was sure, he could pretend that he was part of a lucky family life with a caring wife and a sweet daughter. Strange enough, this idea wasn’t as uncomfortable as it should be. But with his next breath, the uneasiness was back. He couldn’t fool himself. He hardly knew Zelda and although Tetra was very talkative towards him, he didn’t know her either. He wasn’t even sure if Zelda had told her, who he was. No, the moment was lacking the familiarity a real family would have. 

He paused and piled the chopped carrots with his knife. What was a real family? Would they ever become one? Would Zelda want that? Would _he_ want that? Tetra would be his family one day, that was why he was here, after all. But what about Zelda? She was the mother of his child, in most cases, that included a woman in the family. But under their circumstances? His hope was that they would be able to establish a friendship after today, though that depended heavily on their talk. She had yet to answer his questions, and he still had no idea what the outcome would be. Urbosa had given him some background information, but the critical matters were still unanswered. An apology and several explanations had been her promise, and he planned to pin her down on this. 

Zelda had removed Tetra’s stuff in favor of plates, silverware, and two wine glasses, she had even folded a cloth napkin for each of them. If she had lit a candle as well (and if not for the third plate of course), he would have suspected, she would try to seduce him, but that was of course an absurd idea. This wasn’t a date, and he should really stop thinking of her as one, no matter how good her blue blouse brought out the color of her green eyes. Perhaps it was just a habit that his mind constantly classified this evening as a date because his only female friend was a Zora with a completely different lifestyle. So, when he found himself in situations like this, it _had_ always been a date. _But not today,_ he reminded himself again. 

When the three of them finally sat down to eat, and he couldn’t busy himself anymore with cooking, he tried to make some small talk to ease the awkward mood. 

“So, did you had the opportunity yet to take a look at the samples I brought along at the lab? I’m sorry if they are a bit ruffled. Bringing them back in one piece is quite the task sometimes.” He addressed Zelda and chuckled. 

Zelda looked at him with wide eyes. Was she astonished that he wanted to talk to her? Or was it, because he had discovered Tetra’s picture on that day? She didn’t say anything but recovered at least halfheartedly after a moment. 

“Sorry. Yes, I was able to take a look. Robbie is crazy about the Guardian shield you brought him.” 

“Oh, that’s good. Took me two and a half days to get it.” Link smiled. “It’s still the missing one in the Shiekah section of the exhibition, isn’t it? I’m offline most of the time in the wild and back in the hotel I often forget to check my lists.” 

“Yes, it’s still missing. They will be glad, too.” She took her time again before continuing, looking, nearly staring at him. Why was she hesitating? This was just normal co-worker small talk, wasn’t it? 

“We appreciate, that you brought us some stuff in person. Most of the explorers send it via airmail and that always takes ages”, she said with a tight smile. 

Link tried not to sigh. The tension between them was nearly palpable. Four years ago, their conversation had been fluent and carefree, words and laughter flying between them, a whirlwind of smiles and various topics, of teasing jokes and lingering touches. It had been the first time that he had truly understood what it meant to be on the same wavelength with somebody. 

And now? 

Every word seemed to be carefully expressed, every sentence long considered before being spoken aloud. The situation was odd, for him, too, but she wasn’t only nervous, she was tense, nearly… haunted. 

It was a sharp contrast to the person he had met four years ago, and he didn’t like it one bit. Where was the energetic woman who wrapped him around her finger in mere minutes? What even was her normal personality? The woman, who yelled at him and slammed the door in his face? The woman who enchanted him that evening and – oh, sweet Hylia, that night? The woman who was hardly able to look at him today? The only thing he knew was, that Zelda Bosphoramus was surely the most complex person he had ever met in his life, and he hadn’t seen her for more than a handful of days yet. 

This would be interesting. 

Zelda didn’t keep the conversation going during the entrée despite complimenting him for his ‘outstanding risotto’, so Link decided to postpone their conversation until Tetra would go to sleep. He had promised Tetra Wildberry Crêpes after all, so he fled back to the kitchen counter to avoid the stiff silence. Since Tetra could hardly sit still anymore on her highchair, he invited her to prepare the batter with him. That got him another ‘awesome’ from Tetra and a smile from Zelda, which helped to soothe his nerves a bit. 

“Do you want to make your own, Tetra? But we have to be cautious, the pan is really hot.” 

“On my own?” Tetra’s eyes were wide as saucers, while she bounced from one leg to the other. Link looked over to Zelda, unsure if he had overstepped. Was she still too small to do something like that? He wasn’t overly experienced with children, but he knew that they usually loved doing things on their own. At least Sidon, Mipha’s younger brother did, and he was the only reference he had. 

Zelda hesitated and Link held his breath for a moment, perhaps this hadn’t been such a good idea after all. But then, Zelda shrugged and said: “If you stay with her, she should be ok.” 

Link turned back to Tetra and smiled at her. “So?” 

Tetra looked at him, then at Zelda, and back at him again, eyes still wide open. Suddenly, she hopped from the chair, which Link had pulled at the kitchen counter for her, and rushed over to Zelda, only to hide behind her. 

Oh. 

The twitch he felt in his gut dumbfounded him slightly. Had he believed he would show up in her life and all’s well that ends well? He hardly knew what he was doing at all. No – baby steps had to be the first choice to sort out the chaos that was his life right now, and he would start by flipping this perfectly normal crepe. 

“How did you know that wildberries are my favorite?”, Zelda asked a little surprised, when Link served her the first plate. 

“Oh? Keep thinking that please”, he laughed. “It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact, that they are in season right now.” 

Zelda smiled at him – a small, but honest smile, the first that reached her eyes this evening. He smiled back, trying to tell her with his eyes that he was willing to make this work somehow. She nodded – out of understanding or to end the conversation, he didn’t know – and started to cut her dessert. 

Link was sitting down on his place after putting a crepe on Tetra’s plate, when Zelda moaned, “That’s delicious!” 

Immediately, he froze. Even four years later the noise threw him back to _that_ night, Zelda grasping the sheets of the king-size bed under him, moaning dirty-sweet encouragement in his ear. 

_ No.  _

He blinked heavily to force the image away. His daughter was sitting at the table, he could not think of sex with her mother now! No. _Absolutely not._

He peered at Zelda to find out if she had noticed his slip-up. She had taken another bite and savored it with closed eyes. 

Hylia help him, he knew that face, too. His mind wasn’t helping at all, showing him an image of her, straddling his lap in the middle of the night, her breasts – no. _No!_ Goddesses, no wonder he had knocked her up – they had tried often enough. He had to pull himself together. _Now._ This evening was supposed to talk things out and not to begin an affair. She was attractive, yes. The sex had been _mind-blowing_ , yes, too. But they had important things to discuss, and he needed her to build up a relationship with Tetra. He couldn’t risk that. He _wouldn’t_ risk that. She had only yesterday begun to trust him, it would take a lot of time before – wait, no. _Before nothing._ He had to shove these thoughts back to the corner of his mind. The situation was odd enough, absolutely no need to add sex to the mix.

He pierced, no stabbed his Crêpe and cut it with way too much forth, a helpless attempt to deflect the pent-up energy on something harmless. Fortunately, Hylia took pity on him and Tetra started to babble about her day at the nanny, and he was distracted quickly by her lucky laughter and the hilarious sight of her pink face, smeared all over with wildberry juice. 

He didn’t look at Zelda again as long as they were eating. 

She surprised him when she asked him if he wanted to accompany her and Tetra on Tetra’s bedtime routine. Of course, he wanted if both of them were ok with that. So, he found himself in Tetra’s room, sitting on a tiny chair, listening to Zelda’s voice, when she read a book named ‘the paper bag princess’. 

He hadn’t read children's books in years, why should he have after all, so he was pleasantly surprised, that the princess took her life into her own hands and didn’t marry the prince because he was stupid. To him, the book revealed more about Zelda than about the princess, since she had probably bought it, but he tried to smile in secret. He had absolutely no clue how to raise a child, but impulsively he liked the idea of doing it without the usual clichés. He was glad that he might have that in common with Zelda. When she was finished and Tetra had fallen asleep, Zelda eyed him suspiciously. 

Oh. 

She had chosen the book on purpose. To test him. His eyes went wide, and he wasn’t sure if he should be fascinated or offended. Before he had decided, his words had slipped out. 

“What, do you expect me to crack a chauvinistic comment? Nobody should marry an idiot, princess, or not.” 

She was halfway through Tetra’s door, when she grew stiff, turned around to him in slow motion and a wave of ice water hit him: “Someone has to since there would be nobody left to rescue for the nobles Heroes, wouldn’t you agree?” 

“Zelda, I… ”, he started shuddering, but she didn’t let him finish. 

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry. Please... please don’t go,” she whispered and pressed her palms on her suspicious glassy eyes. “I don’t mean it. Please stay, will you? It’s just... Let’s get over with this, ok?”, she stammered, her voice thick. She closed Tetra’s door after him, leaving him with the urge to pull this broken soul in his arms and breathe in her hair that everything was going to be ok. 


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everybody, I managed to look it over today, you don't have to wait until tomorrow.  
> So, grab yourself something to drink and enjoy nearly 5k words of Link and Zelda sorting out their mess.

Back in the kitchen, the sweet smell of crepes tickled his nostrils and mocked the strained atmosphere between them. He didn’t dare to face-palm in front of her. Even the smallest progress, they had made during the meal and the bedtime routine, was ruined with one imprudent sentence. He doodled with the napkin, unable to start the conversation. He had made several attempts today – with little success, and he really didn’t want to start with the difficult questions right now. 

After another awful silence, she started with a question towards him. 

“Is Tetra your only child?” 

His mouth dropped. What?! Did she think he was too stupid to use contraception in general? Of course, their evening had quickly heated up and one thing led to another, but that didn’t mean, he was offering his DNA to everyone! He had trusted _her_ with this matter, not the other way around, after all. 

He must have looked utterly shocked because she had a confused expression now. “What? It’s just, you have a way with children and, well, I wondered why. And”, she hesitated, “you could have a family in Termina by now.” 

Oh. Ok. She had a point. It had been four long years and of course, he could have settled down in Termina. From his interaction with Tetra, she only knew, that he wasn’t married, but that doesn’t mean, he couldn’t have started a family with someone. 

He hummed in thought. 

“Suppose, you are right”, he sighed. “Thank you, by the way. The last few days were tough for me, good to know that I don’t do everything wrong.” Link rolled his shoulders in an attempt to ease the tension which had built up over the evening. “And no, I don’t have a family with someone. No children. Not even ‘someone’”, he employed air quotes and then chuckled, “Just the breath of the wild and me.” 

Zelda made a face between a smile and a grimace. “I guess that makes it at least a bit less complicated,” then she switched into the grimace, “Can’t imagine a girlfriend would be very pleased about the news that you have a three-year-old daughter.” 

Link could only snort. “Yeah, _that_ would be totally crazy. Good news, that we have to deal with something much more normal“, he deadpanned. 

Zelda stared at him. “Link, I… “ 

He drove his hands over his face. The third time he would ruin the basis of the talk, she would show him the door again. “Sorry. I resort to sarcasm when I’m overwhelmed.” 

“Link, please. The whole mess is my fault and I have no idea how I can explain anything of this to you. To be honest, I wonder why you are here at all. I understand that you feel a duty towards Tetra, but why do you care about me?”, she shook her head. “Tetra would have been safe from the moment, in which you signed the paternity papers. Even my lawyer thought I would pull his leg when I told him the whole story.” 

Link sighed deeply. “Daruk asked me the same question yesterday evening. Honestly, I hadn’t much time to think everything over. When Urbosa told me some things about Ganondorf...” He shrugged. “I don’t know, it just tipped me over. Call it a gut feeling, if you must. I don’t care. I do care about Tetra and I’m sure, things will be a lot easier for the three of us if we two are on good terms. It… it has to start with us.” 

Zelda nodded slowly. “Yeah, if you really want to be part of her life, we should at least be on speaking terms.” She straightened her back. “Ok. I’m going to answer your questions and I try to explain everything to you, but”, she pressed her lips together, “I don’t expect you to understand.” She stood up and turned towards the cupboards. “Do you want a glass of wine, too? I usually don’t drink much, but it might help me to get over with this.” 

Link hesitated, staring at the second glass in her hand. _This was not a date._

“No, thank you. I’d prefer a coke.” 

She shrugged, returned with the drinks, and sat back at the kitchen table again. 

“First of all, I want to apologize to you for what I did the other day. You summoned up the courage to come here to talk to me and I…”, she shook her head, “sometimes I think, even Tetra is more mature than me.” 

“May I ask”, Link said quietly, “why you were like that?” 

“Yes, why”, she pressed her lips in something similar to a smile. “I was afraid, I guess. Afraid that everything would change again, that someone would disturb our little bubble of just the two of us. When Urbosa told me that you knew, I thought I could push you away, you would go back to Termina and everything would stay like it was. I… “, she hesitated, “I even thought I would do you a favor. You don’t know me; you don’t know Tetra. If I shut you out, you wouldn’t have to care or think about a child you didn’t ask for. I swear”, now she laughed, “it would have worked with any other men, I’ve been in touch before.” 

“Sorry, not sorry”, Link had to laugh, too, and for once, the smell of pancakes won. 

“Is that why you didn’t contact me when you found out about the pregnancy? Because you thought I would cause you two nothing but trouble?” 

She looked surprised how quickly he had anticipated this. “Yes, one of many reasons. To be honest, I thought you had been too good to be true that evening. Still do sometimes. But how do you know?” 

“You mentioned your bad experiences before we… well.” The flush heated up to the tips of his ears, and she followed suit. So, she hadn’t forgotten either. Was it chemistry alone that brought them together that evening? 

“Zelda…”, he couldn’t leave the question which tortured him since the beginning unasked any longer. He took a breath, pressed his eyes shut and asked, voice hoarse, “Did you… did you plan to get pregnant that night?” 

Having the question spoken aloud, burned them both. There was no going back from here. He had crossed the one line she feared since he had reentered her life. Something closed down in Zelda’s eyes, and he was standing in front of her apartment once more, the bang of the door still in his ears. The anxiousness crept down his back like a teasingly slow sweat drop on a hot summer day. 

She stared at him, face unmoving. Finally, she took the last sip of her wine and closed her eyes for a long, hardly bearable moment. When she opened them again, he couldn’t suppress a little gasp. He looked through her green emerald irises directly into her soul. Not all the money of Hyrule’s prospering economy would be able to convince him to look away. 

“Did I plan to get pregnant? I can’t answer that easily.” 

“Just try,” he whispered. 

She didn’t tear her gaze away, and he was flooded with emotions, pain, and hope mostly, just like it had happened in court yesterday. The goosebumps all over his body pleaded him to hold her gaze, and he did – until she stood up abruptly, her eyebrows furrowed. 

“S-sure, you don’t want a glass of wine? This will take some time and I’m not sure if you will like what you will hear.” 

“Yeah, no alcohol today for me,” Link blinked. 

“Your decision.” Zelda shrugged the moment away. “So… how do I explain the mess which is my life to you? Perhaps I should start with this. I always dreamed of this cliché of a happy family as a young girl. When we got married, Ganondorf wanted to wait with children. I was ok with that because I preferred to finish my studies first. Over the years, my wish became stronger and stronger, but my marriage...” She shuddered at her own words. “It took me way too long to break out, but at least I was in my right mind to understand that Ganondorf never should father my children”, she sighed. 

Link nodded at her, mostly to reassure her of that decision. He hesitated with his next question; he hadn’t forgotten her harsh reaction from before. “I don’t want to be rude, but… why did you marry Ganondorf in the first place? He didn’t give me the impression of a dream man, either.” 

“At least, that’s easy to answer”, she snorted. “I was young and foolish. Ganondorf was a business acquaintance of my father, and he put me on a pedestal. He treated me like a princess and my girlish heart mistook it for love.” She pointed at the dark sky outside. “You know, one night he would stand under my window and sing a song he had written for me. And the other day, he would forbid me to go outside in case I met someone who would be more interesting than he. One time I even missed a test because of that nonsense.” Her hands were restless, rearranging the few pieces of their dinner that were left over and over. “It’s hard to believe now that it took me years to understand that he was only interested in the business of my father. Even when I finally broke up the marriage, he thought he could carry on like before. My father still wanted him as his company heir since his ill-bred daughter preferred being a useless scholar over a manager of a company empire.” She let out a bitter laugh. “They both thought, I would simmer down again. Ganondorf still does, you heard him.” She lowered her eyes to the still life of kitchen stuff she had created on the table. When she looked at him again, the hollowness in her gaze hit him unprepared. “My father was even more dazzled than me. It took him a black eye on my face to finally realize what was going on.” 

Link buried his face in his hands and rubbed it. This was nearly as bad as he had feared. 

“Zelda… did he… did he do that regularly?” 

“No.” She shook her head, but he saw that she couldn’t stop her hands from trembling. “He... he is more the psycho type. But when he found out that I was pregnant … “ 

“Plan B suddenly doesn’t sound so unappealing anymore”, Link said through his gritted teeth, his hand grasping behind his shoulder where of course no sheathed sword awaited him. 

“Plan B?” 

“Yeah. Stabbing that monster with the master sword.” 

Despite the tense mood, Zelda had to laugh, but Link only sighed. 

“You really should have contacted me. Nobody should deal with something like that alone.” 

“Link, you were barely more than a stranger to me. What would you have done?”, Zelda snarled, “Quitting your job in Termina, fighting back Ganondorf, giving me emotional support, and raise a child with your ex-one-night-stand?” 

Link could hardly suppress the urge to slam his hand on the kitchen table. He couldn’t risk waking up the girl. He tried to close his hands into fists under the table instead, but it hardly helped to keep the anger out of his voice. _Tetra_. He couldn’t risk waking up Tetra, not 'the girl'. 

“I’m here doing exactly that, am I not?” 

“You didn’t quit Termina,” Zelda stated with crossed arms. 

“I did.” 

“What?!”, Zelda’s eyes widened in horror. “No. You can’t do that. I won’t stand by and let you throw away your life project just because I made a mistake.” 

“Zelda!” Link hissed. “I can’t do that? Stop making decisions for me. I’m taking over from here, thank you very much!” 

“I can’t believe you!” 

“Look who’s talking”, Link snorted and crossed his arms, mirroring her. 

He tried to stare her down for several moments, wondering how quickly their discussion had heated up. Unlike his former girlfriends who had been mostly sweet and well, a bit dull, Zelda was smart, impulsive, and short-tempered. An explosive mix, and he couldn’t deny that it sparked something inside him. He narrowed his eyes in an attempt to put a finger on this familiar feeling. It was something he knew well, something he needed, craved even, something that pulled the corners of his mouth upward: The warm feeling of a challenge tingling in his stomach. 

“Care to explain what is so amusing?” Her voice was still sour. 

“Hm? Oh, I just remembered something. Never mind.” Would she need a proper apology to go on? Hm... no. “Sorry, I got carried away a bit. If it puts your mind at ease, we can talk about my decisions another time. For today, I would like to hear about you.” 

He couldn’t stop his mouth to turn from a ghost of a smile to a grin when she smiled again. 

“I’m sorry, too. Something about you puts me on edge, I guess.” 

“Same here”, he answered, feeling the tingling sensation again. He postponed his next question to savor the moment a little longer, but they weren’t finished yet. 

“Ok, let’s get over with this. Tell me about that night.” 

Her smile faded. 

“Yeah, sorry. But I have to know if we want to start over.” 

She stared at him again with this unreadable expression. “You… you want to start over?” 

“Hm? Yeah, I wanna try at least. The get along part. Not… necessarily the… the sex part.” Link bit his tongue. What was wrong with him? She wouldn’t tell him anything when she thought, he was here to jump her. 

“Not necessarily?”, she grinned unembarrassed, one eyebrow raised at him, but to his relief, she dropped the topic. “If you find it in your heart to forgive me, I would very much like to start over, Link. Hylia knows I don’t deserve it, but... you are still here, so I dare to hope”, she laughed quietly. 

“You don’t deserve it? My decision. Again.” He winked at her. “But go on.” 

She sighed, “Of course. Ganondorf tried to break me. He took advantage of my strained relationship with my father and thumbed into me that everybody thought of me as a failure. I tried to cut myself off from him and I like to believe that’s what saved me in the end.” 

For a moment, she looked not like a young, thriving woman, but hollow again, nearly gray. She caught herself quickly and looked directly into Link’s eyes, causing his breath to catch due to the intensity of her gaze. Would he ever get used to this? 

“Today is the first time, I talk about it. Even Urbosa knows only parts of the story. I don’t know how do you do it, but you make this way easier than I feared.” Her smile was small but honest. 

“Thank you”, Link breathed and wasn’t sure if he meant the compliment or the fact that she was opening up to him. 

“A few weeks after I broke up with Ganondorf, I daydreamed about having a baby again. I was so done being reliant on somebody else. Why wait for a Mr. Perfect who doesn’t exist for me anyway?” 

“So, you decided to take your life into your own hands?” Link held his breath; they were getting close. 

“It was nothing than a daydream, a little revolution just in my head. I never planned on acting in it.” 

“Until you met me, and I was the perfect candidate because you would never see me again.” Link said dryly and tasted the iron of his blood when he bit his tongue again. 

Zelda’s eyes flashed up. “Do you want to know what happened or not?” 

“Sorry”, he muttered. She sighed and her gaze softened again. “What Ganondorf did to me over the years left me beyond being hurt. I was numb. I felt the stares of the people around me, everybody had a certain image of me that wasn’t me at all. The pressure of being the perfect daughter and the perfect wife, the psycho terror behind closed doors, it was all raining down on me. I was tired of pretending to be somebody else, and I was so, so numb.” She avoided his gaze now, hiding away the hunting images. 

“I went to this party because Urbosa forced me. She said a bit of socializing could do me good. And then, Daruk introduced us. I knew some things about you before, you are quite the legend in our business after all. But you were not like I thought you would be. I don’t know, someone with your reputation could only be arrogant, cocky, something like that. But...”, she smiled at him through her lashes. Link sucked a breath in as quietly as he could. Hylia above – _this was not a date._ “You were completely different from anybody I knew. You didn’t judge me. You respected me and treated me even – what's the word for that? – chivalrous? You were so unlike Ganondorf, nothing about you was fake. But it was not only that. You made me feel worthy. And alive. So, so alive.” She blushed. “In... in more than one way.” 

Link blinked a few times to get rid of the image of the mischievous glint in her eyes when she had kissed him before his treacherous mind would show him much more alive scenes about their night again. 

“But back to the evening. I was shocked, how easily you tore my walls down. Shortly, I tried to push you away, but I felt drawn to you like a moth to the flame. When I realized that you would leave for Termina for several years, I decided to allow myself one evening to be a normal 24-year-old woman.” 

Link couldn’t help but grin. “Looks like you are not very good at pushing me away.” 

“No”, laughed Zelda, “obviously I’m not. The whole evening was bliss and when I felt your touch lingering, I wanted more. More feeling alive, more of that bliss, more _you_. Just... just for one night. Well, that you look like a se – “, she stopped herself, ears tinted red. 

“Yes? Like...?”, Link asked amused. 

“Like an underwear model didn’t exactly help to stop me.” Oh, she found him attractive as well? Now that’s… _completely unimportant._

“I had been taking the pill since I was 16, I never had to worry about contraception. You know, when you take the pill, it’s always three weeks yes, and then a week no and you start anew, but you are safe the whole time.” She pressed her hands over her eyes. “Gods, that sounds so stupid now, but I had some rough weeks with the new apartment and was struggling to find a new routine. I was a complete mess in general.” Her hands fell limp on the kitchen table. “Normally, I’m like clockwork with things like that, I swear. But back then... I was so wrapped up in my problems...” She whispered the next part. “I lost track.” Averting her gaze from her hands, he could see only despair in her eyes. “When you asked me about protection, I was electrified by the momentum, by you, I can’t explain it properly, but in any case, it didn’t come to my mind that I was a week or so behind schedule. If I’m honest, I didn’t realize what I had done until a few days later when I stumbled over the blister packs in my bathroom.” 

Link stopped breathing, his heartbeat pounding in his ears. That was it. He wrung his hands and pressed the palms together. He had spent days pondering about this problem and now he had his answer. That was it, the reason, why he had a daughter. The proof, that she had – wait. 

Confused, he exhaled his breath and his heartbeat returned to the place in his chest, where it belonged. That... that was all? His shoulders sagged and he sank back on his chair. She had simply missed starting again because her life had turned upside down. No lie. An oversight. 

He raised his hand to his mouth to stifle the shaky, insane laughter which was about to escape his throat. 

She spoke very quietly now, “I know that sounds stupid. It’s ok if you can’t believe me. It was my responsibility to remember that at that moment. I have asked myself so often if perhaps it was my subconscious acting at that moment because I had this... this idea before.” 

She buried her face in her hands, only to raise her head to stare at him again a moment later. He managed a lopsided smile. She had not been calculating. 

“But if I had minutely planned it, if I just wanted a baby, I would have disappeared”, she coughed awkwardly, “after the first time, don’t you think? Or I would have simply sneaked out the next morning as normal people do, but I even kissed you goodbye at the taxi, you remember?”, she desperately tried to convince him. 

Of course, he remembered. The whole incident had been anything than an ordinary one-time-fling. If he was honest with himself, it had been that what had irritated him most. After he had recovered from the initial shock of having a child at all, he couldn’t bring Daruk’s and Urbosa’s statements about the planned pregnancy and his memories of the evening and night together. 

The tension which had bothered him since his discovery slowly left his body, and he pressed his eyes shut for a moment, inhaling slowly. She had not been calculating. A mistake. A simple but serious mistake. They had both made a similar mistake and the rest was fate. 

The wine was now catching up on Zelda or it was the fact that she had the confession itself from her chest, but she couldn’t stop talking. “The first days, I convinced myself, that nothing would happen. So many couples try over years to get pregnant, why should that happen to me after one night? I had taken the pill for eight years after all.” She shook her head. “The second line on the test appeared nearly immediately.” She shuddered violently at the memory. “I couldn’t talk to anybody, my father still expected me to resume my marriage with Ganondorf. I didn’t want that, of course, and I had to protect the baby somehow from him and then, the morning sickness in the lab, Link, it was pure horror”, she stammered. “Never, ever had I put myself in a situation like this voluntary.” 

She was trembling now, but still fighting back the tears. Link raised his hand to consulate her, but before he could act, she spoke again, voice a little hoarse from the long speech and the suppressed tears. 

“One day, Ganondorf came to my new apartment to persuade me to come back to him. I returned from my first consultation only a few minutes ago, still shocked, but kind of lucky, to see Tetra for the first time on a scan, too. He discovered the scan and – ”, she closed her eyes for a moment, “you found the complaint yourself. After that day, I slowly began to think that this was the possibility of having my own family. It took me some time to see it like that, but in the end, I grew fond of that idea.” 

She looked at the wall behind him as if it was the world’s interesting painting. 

“I waited until the second Trimester to tell Urbosa about the baby. She tried to convince me to contact the father, but I couldn’t. I was so afraid of your reaction because I basically lied to you. You shouldn’t suffer from my mistake and your eyes lit up every time you talked about Termina… You told me that this was the once in a lifetime chance for you... I couldn’t do that to you.” 

Her face was torn in a grimace, and she pressed her lips together before she continued. “I told myself that you would never find out anyway and made up the story of the planned child for anyone else, you know, to avoid the shame of my mistake. This way I could treasure the memory of the one time someone treated me like I was worthy. I didn’t run the risk of ruining the picture of the chivalrous knight who was – _is_ the father of my child.” 

Her posture slacked, and she buried her face in her hands. Did she begin to sob? Oh, no. 

“I never meant to ruin your life.” 

Link reached finally over the table to touch her wrist to get her attention. His guts knotted violently at the thought of how many hours she had suffered in silence. An unplanned pregnancy was surely not a small task to deal with, even in an established relationship. But getting pregnant from a one-night-stand while still married to another, without someone to support her through her already unstable state of mind? He swallowed the lump in his throat and it spread nausea all the way down to his stomach. _He had done that to her._

Of course, it had been her own decision not to contact him, but would he have reacted as he reacted now? The truth let him shift on his chair, unable to find a comfortable position. She wasn’t wrong. He had been thrilled about his new task in Termina, the first project with leadership responsibility for him, a new country, and the call of the wild. Now he was leaving a well-established team and a smoothly running project which would end anyway in a year more or less. 

His unexpected movement startled her, and she looked at him with red eyes. “What?! I ruined Ganondorf’s life, too, but he is a monster. But you, you didn’t deserve anything of this! Oh, Hylia, the only thing I am good at is ruining lives! I’m really just a failure!” Her gaze lingered on him and for a moment, he could see them, the ghosts haunting her. People pressuring her, exaggerated expectations, gossip. The constant threat of her ex-husband, the burden of being the heir to a throne she didn’t want, and the persistent anxiety of her behavior towards himself. 

He made a decision, here in her kitchen, between empty plates and crayon doodles, between smeared mascara and an uneasy stomach, between guilt and hope. 

He would never be part of these ghosts again. 

“Zelda.” Link touched her again to shake her out of her spell. She let her hands down, and he took one in his to soothe her. Her hand was cold in his, and she shuddered, but she didn’t withdraw. 

“Zelda, please listen to me. I can only begin to imagine what you have been through. For me, it’s a tough time, too, I won’t deny that. I need time to think about everything that you have told me. But”, he held two fingers up with his other hand, “two things we can set straight right now. First: Protection is a task for both partners. I’m not exactly a womanizer, but I do have my fair share of experience. Instead of shifting the responsibility halfheartedly on you, I could have simply fetched condoms from my stuff somewhere in the room, _but I didn’t_. I got carried away, too, Zelda. I’m as much in charge as you are, please don’t take full responsibility for what we caused both.” 

Link waited for Zelda to say something, but she remained silent. He couldn’t decipher her facial expression. Her cheeks were still red from the wine and the tears, her lips were slightly parted and her eyes wide open. He hadn’t realized that he had begun to stroke his thumb over her hand, but since she had stopped crying, he continued the movement. 

“And…”, he still hesitated in case she would find her voice again, “second: Never, I repeat, never think again that you ruined my life.” 

He paused to let his words sank in. 

“Call it a sudden, crass, and unexpected change in my life I didn’t ask for if you must. But you did not _ruin_ my life, Zelda. I could have turned around and never come back two days ago. You gave me the perfect excuse by slamming that door in my face. _But I didn’t._ I have no idea how, but I want to try to be a father for Tetra.” He smiled, “She is _awesome_.” 

Now Zelda let out a watery laugh. “Yes, she is.” 

“Hey, I know this is weird as hell, and we both need time, but we are gonna make it work, ok?” He squeezed her hand one last time and finally released it. “I will need your help, Zelda, do you think you can do that?” 

Zelda nodded slowly. “Of course, everything you need. It’s just…“, she paused and lowered her gaze at the goosebumps on her arms. “I… “, she closed her eyes, rubbed her arms, and exhaled the breath she had been holding, “thank you. For _everything_ you did in the last days.” 

Link crossed his arms, tilted his head up, and grinned. “I’ve got an image to keep up, haven’t I? ‘Chivalrous knight’… “, he snorted amused and put his arms back on the table. “Just stop pushing me away, ok?” 

She nodded again and a tear strained grin grew on her face. 

“Pinky promise?” 

Link laughed and hooked in, trying to ignore the tingling in his belly. 

“Pinky promise.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Does this fic need more potential trigger tags? I added mentions of violence, but I'm unsure.


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> @hbthingy: Here you go, Rupees flinging Link! 😎

A week later, Zelda moved from one foot to the other at the bus stop near Telma’s apartment. Link had always been on time in the last days, hopefully, he wouldn’t let her down today. He had been very decided to get in touch with them, but she still feared that he could change his mind at any time. When she looked up from her phone again, she knew he wouldn’t. At least not today. 

Link came up to her, hands casually shoved in the pockets of his jeans, and shot her a boyish grin. And heaven’s above, how could a single man be so handsome? She caught herself quickly before he would notice her staring and smiled back. 

“Hey.” 

They hugged loosely. 

“Hey. Ready to get her?” 

“No”, Link laughed. “But that won’t change if I continue standing here, I guess.” 

“She likes you.” Zelda reassured him when they began to walk down the street. 

“You think?” 

“I _know_. She’s very picky when it comes to people. Good intuition.” 

He shot her another smile when they crossed a back road. “I’m flattered.” 

“You are doing alright, don’t worry.” 

“Easy to say for you...”, he sighed and hit the button of the pedestrian light they had reached. Silence stretched when they waited for the signs to turn. Link didn’t seem to mind, but she had yet to get used to it. In all honesty, it had been ages since she had spent so much time with someone in a row. Moreover, when she had, it had rarely been so... relaxed. Between her father and her, the mood had always a strained edge at least, and her workmates, well. They were workmates. There was nothing wrong with them, but she often had the feeling of being monitored as a part-time worker. With Ganondorf, she had to stay on guard the whole time, never sure what he would be up to the next moment. Link... was different. The breaks in their conversation seemed to come and go naturally, and she managed to resist the urge to fill them with mindless chit-chat more and more. Still – it was odd for her to simply _be_ with someone. 

Sometimes, he caught her staring or even pulling away in anticipation of being hurt again. A soft, sad smile spread on his face then, and he lowered his long lashes in acknowledgment. She was still shocked, how easily he saw through her. That had never happened before with _anyone_ and shouldn’t be possible for someone who only began to know her, but here they were. She even had to admit that it wasn’t that bad. Although she could hardly believe it, he had accepted her explanation for her behavior and her apology without a trace of judgement. It was obvious that some things she had done had hurt him, but both to her disbelief and relief, he was quick to forgive her. She had answered his questions and now he moved on like she hadn’t withheld the existence of his daughter from him and slammed a door in his face on top of that. No, he stood here next to her and tapped her arm to shake her from her daydream because the sign had changed. 

He shoved his hands in his pockets again and avoided her gaze when they crossed the street. 

“Uhm, thanks for your help yesterday. And sorry that I overstretched my visit, it was already dark when I got out of your building.” 

She frowned at him. “Hm?” 

“The theory of the Deku Mask. I rewrote the whole article yesterday evening to integrate your assumptions.” He scratched his neck. “Originally we had only planned to spent two hours together.” 

“Oh, don’t worry about that. It was fun. I rarely have someone to listen to my ramblings about things like that and Tetra was happy, too.” 

“Really? I thought you had a bunch of fellow scholars to theorize around you.” 

“Nah, only Robbie. You can’t discuss anything with him that doesn’t concern Ancient Shiekah Weapons. But what about you? You have a whole team in Termina.” 

He shrugged. “Sure. But most of them aren’t interested in the background of their work and the few who are think they can’t argue with me because I’m the boss.” 

“Well”, she grinned at him, “you will most certainly not have _that_ problem with me.” 

“No”, he smirked back. “I’m sure, I won’t.” 

They had reached Telma’s building now, and she gestured towards the entrance. 

“Anyway”, he continued, “I would like to point out your input at the end of the article, would that be ok with you? I would write that you are from the scholar team at least and if you agree your first name, too?” 

She slowed her pace when they reached the steps. “I... are you sure?” 

“Yeah, of course. I won’t take credit for it when you did the work. It’s not unusual, don’t worry. Revali wrote a guest article about the mechanics of Vah Medoh for me, for example.” 

“Uhm, ok then?” 

Laughing, he nudged her in the side. “Don’t be so shy, Zelda. Let everybody know that you’re smart.” 

She blushed like a silly school girl. The business partner of her father complimented her often for her looks when she gave them the opportunity, but it was very different to hear Link so easily admit that she was bright. 

Her gaze was glued to the steps for the rest of their way up, and she hoped her hair would hide the color on her cheeks. On the third floor, they stopped in front of Telma’s door, and she already panted lightly. Link took the door and the staircase in, raising an eyebrow at her. 

“Are we not going to knock?” 

“I have to catch my breath, you moron. You know, some... some people have a proper job and don’t run across the country every day.” 

Link gasped and his eyes widened. “Wha-“ He turned to her and his face lit up when he saw her quashed grin and her eyes glittering with mirth. 

“My bad”, he grinned back and knocked. 

Telma opened the door after a short time and Tetra practically flew at Zelda’s legs. “Mommy!” 

Zelda stroked her hair which made her look up, and she spotted Link. “Oh. Hi, Link.” 

Telma, too, only looked at Link, her eyes traveling over his face to his sneakers and back to his eyes. 

“And who are you, handsome stranger?” 

Zelda inhaled and tried to keep her voice straight. 

“Telma, that’s Link.” She twitched her fingers at her side. “Tetra’s father.” 

Telma scratched her cheek. “Um, but…” She shook her head and began anew. “Didn’t you say he shouldn’t know where she is?” 

Link shifted beside her, taking a little step backward. 

“No, no. Not my ex-husband”, she hurried to say and her hand shot out to stop Link from backtracking. She inhaled deeply. Pressed her eyes shut for a moment at the prospect of explaining this over and over again. “Her father. Her real father.” 

“Oh. Well.” Telma nodded in Link’s direction. “Nice to meet you, I guess.” 

“Likewise”, Link smiled a small smile at her. 

“So, he is allowed to pick her up, too? Beside from Urbosa, I mean?” 

“Uhm.” Zelda swallowed, feeling Link’s eyes on her. She _really_ should have thought that through. “Yes, of course.” 

Telma looked from one to the other and shook her head in bewilderment. “Fine. Your business anyway.” She wrung her hands in front of her. “Speaking of business…” 

Oh, no. Zelda raised her hand from Tetra’s hair and pressed her fist to her mouth. “Telma… I had some rough days with the trial and all and I didn’t… give me a week, ok?” 

"I already gave you two and a half months, Zelda.” 

“What’s the problem?” Link frowned beside her, slowly withdrawing his hand from Tetra who had begun to pinch at his fingers out of boredom. 

“Zelda wasn’t able to pay me for the last three months", Telma stated bluntly, arms crossed. Zelda’s flushed face began to prickle. How could she forget about this? Link sucked a breath in next to her. That’s why. Someone had turned her life upside down. 

“How much are we in your debt?” Zelda swallowed the shame down and searched Link’s eyes unsuccessfully. Did he just say ‘we’? 

“300 rupees for each month.” Telma eyed him, her face slightly disdainful. 

Link pulled his phone out. “Ok. What’s your account number?” 

“Link…” Zelda held her hand out to him but pulled back when it dawned on her that she wasn’t in the position to stop him. She picked Tetra up to hide her flushed face in her daughter’s hair, listening silently to how Telma dictated her bank account in Link’s phone. Link fidgeted a moment longer before he smiled at both of them. 

"There. I transferred you the money for the missing three months and the remaining two months until kindergarten starts, too. And a little bonus for your patience and as a thank you for your work, ok? That should solve the problem.” 

Telma laughed and shook her head. “I just decided that I like you, Link.” 

Link frowned again. “I don’t think you should depend such a decision on money, but that’s up to you.” He gestured to Zelda and Tetra. “Let’s go then?” 

Zelda was still frozen in place. “Link, I…” 

He ushered her to go. “Come on. Not here.” 

Neither of them spoke until they reached the playground. Zelda’s chest was still tight, and she wasn’t sure if she could perform a whole sentence. What could she say anyway? _Link had just paid over 1500 rupees for her without batting an eye._ That was borderline crazy. She hated to admit it, but it helped her. A lot. And was it so different to ask Urbosa for help? 

Tetra had dragged him to the swings, and she couldn’t help but scanning him. What had she done to deserve his kindness? He wasn’t allowed to wipe all her problems aside like it was nothing. A treacherous voice from inside her whispered: _‘A little too perfect, hm? Kind, funny, handsome… ‘_

No! She would not fall for him. She would never fall for anybody again. She had sworn an oath to herself that she wouldn’t. Mind over heart over body. 

_ ‘Smart, caring, humble… oh, and just remember how he made you feel that night!’  _

No. She didn’t want a relationship. Ever again. And anything casual was out of the question as _parents_. Friends, they could be friends. Yes, friends were ok. 

Her feet had carried her over to them on their own accord. Link pushed the swing and Tetra giggled, begged him to push higher and higher. 

“Hey.” He said, expression open and honest. “Are you mad?” 

“I’m not sure.” 

Link snorted and pushed again. “How does that work? Are you mad or not?” 

“There are people who don’t have the emotional range of a tree trunk.” 

“You don’t say.” Another push, with more force. 

“You just can’t show up in my life and pay my debts.” 

Tetra cheered when he pushed her higher. 

“Don’t get your hopes up. I won’t pay any of _your_ debts. But if we don’t have a nanny, you’ll show up at my doorstep with Tetra and tell me that’s my turn today. I won’t discuss this. Technically, I owe you three years of child support. Call it a commission.” 

“You wouldn’t dare.” 

He rolled his eyes at her and had to step back, or he would have been hit by the swing, the next time, Tetra swung back. 

The guy had nerves. 

“This isn’t about your _pride_. There are _laws_ for that, Zelda.” 

Zelda jerked her chin up. How dare he? 

“I won’t take your money.” 

He sighed and pushed Tetra again, but she laughed: “I wanna stop now, I’m dizzy!” 

“Alright, wait a minute!” He walked up to Zelda and placed his hands on her shoulders. “Don’t stress yourself about that. We’ll figure it out on the go, ok?” 

Damn it, she was a sucker for his smile. She turned her eyes skywards, but even she had to admit that the gesture was missing the heat already. 

He positioned himself in front of the swing and raised his arms. “Come on, Tetra, jump!” 

Zelda snorted audibly. As if. 

“No! I’m afraid!” Take that, stubborn, handsome guy. 

“I know you can do that! I’ll catch you!” 

“No!” Tetra laughed. 

The next time, the swing had nearly reached Link, he called: “Now!” 

And her scaredy-cat of a daughter _jumped_. 

He caught her, twirled her around until she cheered: “Again, again!” 

What the…? 


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everybody, thank you so much for your comments! I don't answer every single one because I sometimes don't know what to say or I don't want to spoil, but they make my day! I'm always grinning like an idiot when I get a notification about a new comment.   
> I'm so happy that there are so many people who like this fic. I know that modern AUs are not for everybody and I took a risk with this one because it's anything like a smooth, fluffy coffee shop AU, but your appreciation made it worth it!

Link wedged his motorbike between his thighs, so he had both hands free. He unfastened a rectangular object from his belt, something Ms. Purah had called ‘shiekah slate’. Last week, he had fetched it from the partner lab in Hateno, and she explained to him that it was a replica of the slate that the last Princess of Hyrule and her Hero had used. They had rebuilt it from old scripts. Her safety instruction endured nearly two hours and afterward, he had to sign an immense stack of papers. He had a hard time not clicking his tongue the entire time. The Shiekah entrusted a _princess_ with the original thing, how dangerous could it be? Admittedly, the kingdom perished with her as the last known member of the royal family, but that had surely nothing to do with this slate. 

The little chime which always rang out, when he opened the map already got on his nerves, but he hadn’t found something where he could switch it off. He looked at the map. It was from the time of said princess and it was difficult to locate the landmarks in the actual Hyrule. On his left hand laid Lake Komolo, so he couldn’t be too far away anymore. Today, he was lucky because the place he was looking for was still in the backcountry. 

Last week, he was looking for a chest near Castletown. The place must have been the prison of the castle once, but now it was a nice little neighborhood on the outskirts of the capital. It had been nearly impossible to locate the exact spot he was looking for, and he still wasn’t sure, when he had rung the bell of one of the cottages. An elderly couple had opened the door. It had taken him nearly 50 minutes to convince them that he was an honorable explorer with the totally reasonable task to dig after a chest hidden in the wild part of their backyard. 

Hylia had smiled upon him that day. After he had finally convinced the couple, they were downright enthusiastic about an ancient artifact in their garden. The woman insisted on videotaping the whole incident with his phone. At the end of the day, he had not only found an odd green fairy shirt for the National Museum, but he had a wiggly video on which he lifted the chest with the so called ‘magnesis rune’ and ducked down under the falling item in the very last moment, too. Needlessly to say that it was a hit on his blog immediately. 

The high grass tickled under his palms when he held his hands to his side and made his way to the pile of rubble in front of him. This should be easier than last week, he smiled. He unhooked the slate again and began to scan the area with the ‘stasis rune’. His actual project was just an interim solution until Urbosa would have the next project ready. He didn’t mind. When he had agreed to help Zelda and Tetra all those weeks ago in his hotel room, she had suddenly been much more willing to appoint him to something new. Win-win-situation for everybody. Smirking, he turned slowly around to watch the meandering yellow on the screen. It had its perks that Zelda was Urbosa’s goddaughter. 

In a few months, he would help to prepare an exhibition for the national museum. It would be the first time that the masks would be shown in the public, and he was supposed to be the link between his former project, the scholar team, and the Museum. She promised him even a new project which would take several years – the old castle would finally be prepared for the public. He could already feel the thrill running through his veins when he thought about that, but things wouldn’t come into motion until next year. Until then, Urbosa had entrusted him with a list of items which were supposed to be hidden all over the country. 

A swarm of crickets rushed into the warm afternoon air when he stepped forward. In Castletown, the air was still crisp, but here the spring already showed its face. Putting the slate down, he shortly considered if he should try to catch some. Tetra was crazy for insects of all kinds. He brought her some, whenever he would see a new species. They always released them to their freedom after they had taken photos for her album, of course. He raised the slate gain. Since it was a Friday, he wouldn’t see her until Monday and the poor cricket wouldn’t take several days in its prison well, so that wasn’t the best idea. 

He smiled, when he activated the yellow light again, several steps aside. Tetra. Catching bugs for her, singing silly songs, playing tag – that were the easy things being a father. They had a lot of fun and he hadn’t regretted one moment to enter her life. He had much, much more trouble with the child-rearing aspect. Saying no, when she wanted the tenth cookie. Dealing with the problem, when she didn’t want to give back a toy from another child. Coaxing her home, when she wanted to stay at the playground until nightfall. 

In their second or third week, he had accidentally sworn in front of Tetra because she bumped her head against his nose when she hugged him. Guiltily, he had covered his mouth with his hand and looked over to Zelda to apologize. She had only laughed at him, telling him he should be the father he wanted to be and not the one he thought she would like to have for Tetra. Her casual tone did nothing to hinder the words to hit home in his heart. He realized some things that afternoon, and he still wasn’t sure what to make about it. 

She didn’t want him to be a better babysitter for Tetra. After their talk, she had made up her mind about the situation and her expectations towards him became clear in the following weeks. She wanted him to do his thing, even if that meant a fight and a compromise afterwards. She challenged him (and herself alike) to deal with his role as a father. She never failed to give him a helping hand when he was struggling (when was he not?), but encouraged him to make his own decisions. 

After her immense effort to push him away, she now kept her promise and more. He had expected her to struggle with handing over responsibilities to him, but she let go easily after she realized that Tetra trusted him. Perhaps she saw something in him that he failed to see. 

It was odd – he knew so many people all over Hyrule and beyond, but when it came to the crunch, he had always been alone. Usually, he had lived up to the expectations well enough, but now when he was facing the biggest challenge in his life so far, he had someone by his side. It was... nice. She helped him to become better, but she never tried to _change_ him. Ilia for example, had always  pressed him to work less or had scolded him for making awful puns. Zelda was different – at least she seemed to be after the few weeks he knew her. She accepted him like he was and Hylia knew – that was a first. 

The screen in his hands reflected the sun, and he blinked. Oh. The slate had powered down during his musings. He reactivated it. Wait – there. He rounded the remnant of what must have once been a wall. Yes, he grinned, a chest. He quickly changed the runes and pulled it out of the rubble. From afar this time – safety first. The chest bounced on the earth with a metallic thud-thud. Not for the first time, he wondered why a pampered princess needed a tool like this, but perhaps she had been a warrior or some kind of scholar, too. The history books were lost in the Great Calamity and there had been very little evidence of this age afterward. Perhaps exploring the castle would shed light on the matter in the next few years. 

A well-placed kick opened the dark chest. Link grabbed the fabric inside and pulled it out. The cloth was smooth and stretchy in his hands, like leggings or tights. Turning it back and forth he wondered what purpose it might have. He ran his fingers over the straps on the side. A bag maybe? But why was it elastic? And green? He turned it upside down. Oh. A _hood_. With ear flaps. He chuckled. Who on earth would wear that? He had already raised his hands with the hood over his head when his phone buzzed. Well, perhaps it was for the better. The National Museum wouldn’t be overly pleased about a photo with one of their items on his head showed on his blog. 

‘Zelda’ said the preview on his screen, and he hurried to open her message. 

‘Any plans for the weekend?’ 

He tossed the funny hood back in the chest and brushed the gravel of a nearby wall to sit down. 

‘Nope.’ 

‘I might or might not have become addicted to your cooking. So… we would very much like to have you over for dinner tomorrow?’ 

Link grinned and held the back of his hand against his warm cheeks. The sun must have had more force than expected. 

‘Already? That might or might not be a new record.’ 

‘That’s how you’ve got your ‘fair share of experience’, yes?’, she teased. 

He paused and licked his lips. 

‘No. Normally I let my friends do the hard work of befriending gorgeous women and just drag them to my hotel room.’ 

He added a grinning cat, just to be sure. It was still difficult to predict what put her on edge, especially without seeing her. She took her time to answer and the broken stone suddenly pricked the underside of his thighs. Teasing her came so naturally to him that he often forgot that they knew each other just a few weeks. Intense weeks, but still. 

‘Now, who would be an easy catch like that?’ 

He laughed in relief. 

‘To be honest, it just worked one time.’ 

She sent a blushing emoji. 

And then: ‘You didn’t drag me.’ 

‘I’d never. Knight code, you know?’ 

‘You are horrible.’ 

‘You just invited me over.’ 

‘BECAUSE YOU CAN COOK!’ 

Oh, he could do this for hours. 

‘I’ll leave you some food on your doorstep, then.’ 

She didn’t answer immediately, and he leaned back on the wall and basked in the sun. The scent of grass and wildflowers never failed to make him comfortable. This list-project was a bit dull, but it wouldn’t last forever. Besides, it allowed him to do easy work outside and that was a nice change for once. Being a father had its highlights, too. He could do funny children's stuff with Tetra he would be eyeballed for as an adult. Maybe he had already prepared a wish list with all the cool stuff he would like to gift her. And Zelda? Well, Zelda... he might or might not have become addicted to her smile. 

Life wasn't that bad after it had come to a screeching halt a few weeks ago.

‘No.’ 

He had to scroll back to reread their conversation. 

‘No?’ 

‘No.’ 

‘Ok.’ 

His finger lingered over the screen, something about reassuring her that he enjoyed her company too dancing around in his mind. The screen went black. He didn’t want to overdo it. 

Humming softly, he hopped from the stone wall. The zip of the plastic bag opened with a smack, and he let the green hood slide inside, securing it in his stuff afterward. Daruk would pick up the empty chest later with his truck. 

He pricked up his ears – the crickets must still be near. Crouching down, he sneaked around the remains of the walls, when the sweet smell of the flowers tickled his nose anew. Perhaps he should pick some flowers for Zelda, too? His gaze traveled over the colorful bloom swaying in the wind. Would she be mad, because she told him a long rigmarole about how she didn’t want to date anyone? He picked a cornflower first and a red poppy second. Screw it. She certainly hadn’t gotten flowers in ages. It was just a bunch of wildflowers and not a bouquet of roses with an engagement ring in a champagne glass. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For everybody who has no access to the DLC of breath of the wild: You can find several items hidden all over Hyrule in the DLC. Link finds two of them in this chapter - Tingle's shirt and Tingle's hood. Look for pictures if you dare, but be prepared, this costume looks absolute hilarious on Link. 😅


	17. Chapter 17

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm really happy how these next scenes turned out, I hope you like them, too. Probably no update tomorrow, but we'll see. 
> 
> @OracleHylia: Hero-time again, I know, I know, but she needs it...

Heavy, dark raindrops only a late summer storm could bring, smacked on the windshield of Zelda’s car. She gripped the wheel as hard as she could to stop her hands from shaking. It must be less than a mile to the next parking area. She just had to make it there somehow. The shakiness expanded from her hands to her stomach, and she slowed down further. Tried to ignore that the driver behind her flashed his lights, blinding her through the driver’s mirror. Tetra was with her. She couldn’t panic while driving. The sign announcing that the parking area was a half-mile away flashed up in her headlight, partially hidden only from the furiously moving wipers. Inhale – exhale. Mind over heart over body. Nearly there. Her pulse drummed circles in her head. Her damned hands wouldn’t stop shaking! She signaled for the parking area far too early and when she finally stood, it took her two attempts to turn the car off.

She leaned her head on the driving wheel, clenching it with her numb fingers, the constant rhythm of the raindrops on the roof helping just a little to ease her panic.

How? How could her father betray her like that?

“Mommy?” Tetra’s sleepy voice came from the backseat of the car.

Zelda inhaled another shaky breath, unable to turn towards her daughter. “We are just t-taking a little break, d-darling.”

Slowly, she was able to push the fog on her mind back. Straightening her back, she pressed her head in the neck-rest. They wouldn’t make it home like that in one piece. She couldn’t drive. Oh, Hylia, what now?

Hesitantly, she grabbed her phone. Her finger lingered over the call button, her eyes fluttering shut for a heartbeat. It was to no avail. They needed help. 

She pushed it. 

The dial tone rung in her ears like the bells of a funeral. Pleas-

“Hey.”

“Thank Hylia. Link, I... we...” She trailed off and wasn’t successful to suppress a sob. Oh, damn it, what exactly did she expect him to do?

“Zelda?”

She couldn’t find the words. 

“Are you...? Do you need help?”

“Yes, help. That’s why... But I don’t know...”

Silence on the line. 

“Ok, ok. I’m here, ok?” He said slowly. “We… we figure that out. First, where are you?”

“A... a parking lot three miles away from my f-father's house.”

“Is asking him to help an option?”

“No!”, she called so loud that Tetra nearly woke up again.

“Whoa, ok.”

“I can’t, I just, I shouldn’t drive.” She exhaled a breath, still shaky. There, she got it out. “A... a taxi, perhaps.”

It rustled on the other end for several moments and suddenly, she heard something that sounded dimly like traffic noise.

“Listen, I’ll send you a request to get your GPS position, yes? I’ll pick you up. Twenty minutes, take it, or give it a minute.”

He had ended the call before she could say anything. After a few seconds, her phone asked her to share her GPS position with Link Forester. Only after she touched the ‘yes’ it occurred to her, that he hadn’t even asked what had happened. 

After five minutes, her heartbeat was back to normal, and she climbed clumsily on the co-driver's seat. After ten minutes, her hands reduced the shaking enough to turn the parking light on. After fifteen minutes she sagged in the seat in relief because she saw the lights of a motorcycle through the wet windows.

Link opened the driver’s door and tried cumbersome to get rid of his wet leather jacket without drenching the seat. He shut the door behind him and cast the jacket on the backseat next to Tetra. He nodded in her direction. “Was she sleeping the whole time?”

“Hmhm.”

“Ok, good.” His gaze traveled over her face, searching. She probably looked like a mess. It didn’t matter. He had seen her worse on that evening a half year ago. It could have been only a minute or two that he was in the car, but the windows were already steaming up with the dampness he had brought in. Reducing the world to a dark gray mess, until it was only him. He leaned towards her, gesturing vaguely with his arms. 

“A hug?”

The storm had left wet spots everywhere on his hoody, water dripped from his bangs at her neck, and the handbrake poked into her hips. Everything about the situation was awful, but his arms were warm and firm around her shaken frame. Slumping, loosening, she felt her body relax against his, and she desperately wished her mind would be that quick. It wasn’t. She was numb all over again. His hands began to stroke her hair, and he tugged her in the space under his chin. The world drowned in the rain outside, and she concentrated on just breathing.

“I like your aftershave”, she tried weakly to break the silence, the numbness. 

He tensed for a moment. 

“I don’t wear one. I hate perfume.”

“Oh. Me too.”

“I know”, he whispered in her hair, and she imagined him pressing a kiss on the crown of her head.

They were silent again until Tetra began to snore.

“Home?”

She let go of him and nodded. Fastened her seatbelt.

The silence hung between them but it wasn’t heavy. She watched him drive in calm, smooth movements. Looking over his shoulder, back at the road, over to her. 

“You certainly got here fast”, she noted, a bit stiffly. 

Link shrugged and operated the turn signal to her home road.

“Daruk’s apartment isn’t too far.”

Oh. Of course, he hadn’t been sitting at home waiting for her to call him for help on a Sunday evening. She couldn’t stand looking at him anymore, her folded arms pressed against her stomach. 

“Sorry.”

His head tilted up and the smile was only in his voice.

“It’s not the first time I want to spend my evening with Daruk and end up with you. He’ll get used to it.”

Sighing, she loosened her seatbelt. “I would rather not make it a habit that you have to save us.”

“Zelda. Asking for help doesn’t make you a damsel in distress, ok? And now come here to hold my jacket over Tetra that she doesn’t wake up from the rain when I carry her inside.”

Inside, she stood in front of the coat rack like a stranger in her own home. Her gaze was attached to his damp leather jacket on the clothing hook. Could she ask him to stay? They had grown rather … dare she say... close?

It was difficult to put a label on their relationship. They weren’t really ex-lovers like so many other separated parents in the kindergarten – their relationship wasn't emotionally charged with distrust, hurt and other unpleasant emotions. No, they were more like… partners in crime. Reliable. Amicable. _Fair_. The trust they had built up over the last months was growing from week to week, but would she cross a line by asking him not to leave her alone? Just a moment, just until she was emotionally stable enough to fight the dread back on her own.

The problem with Link was only that he was always so kind, polite, and attentive that she wasn't sure if he would deny her even if he felt like it. He was the father of her child, at least that was what she called him in front of others because she had no better word, she couldn't, shouldn’t expect him to take care of her. 

And yet, here she was, still frozen in place by her inner turmoil when Tetra's door opened, and these incredible blue eyes met hers. 

Safe, she realized, he managed somehow to let her feel safe again. That was what had lingered in the air when he pulled her in his arms in the car and that was what his small smile promised now. Her heart hummed in agreement and was about to offer another thought, but she hushed it. 

Now was not the time for such nonsense.


	18. Chapter 18

His eyes softened when he saw that she hadn’t moved an inch. Sliding her coat over her shoulders, he hung it next to his without bothering to look. 

“Come on, I’ll cook you something.” 

She nearly sobbed in relief. 

“You don’t want to go back?” 

He rolled his eyes at her. 

“Zelda.” 

“I can manage on my own, really.” 

“ _Zelda_.” 

The fridge was disillusioning empty. Two milk-containers, butter, and some other basics. 

“There’s pasta in the cupboard. And I didn’t unpack the box from our farm subscription. But it’s mostly fruits.” 

Humming to himself, Link placed the box on the kitchen counter and unpacked the items one for one, before he picked a few things and cleaned them. His hands flew here and there, peeling, chopping, stirring before he looked up. 

“You’re staring.” 

“It soothes me.” She stated, unembarrassed because it was true. As long as her eyes followed his deft hands, she didn’t have to think about something else, something much less pleasant than a handsome young man cooking for her. 

He looked into her eyes and for the first time since she had called him, the mirth was back. 

“I have some videos on my blog, you know. Just in case.” 

“I know.” 

She frowned at his back when he poured several swigs of milk into the cooking pot. 

“You’re stalking me.” 

“It’s an official employer branding blog of my company. And stalking includes that you disagree.” 

Another batch of fruits found its way in the pot and Link turned back to her, sighing, stating the obvious. 

“Sorry. You are not up for teasing. Give me two bowls, please.” 

Standing on her tiptoes, Zelda tried to catch a glimpse of the dish, Link was pouring in their dinnerware. 

“What even is that?! A hot smoothie? Fruit milk?” 

Link just gave her a look. 

“It’s _soup_. And have you ever disliked something I have cooked for you in the last half year?” 

The bowls steamed in his hands, and he nodded towards the door. “Living room.” 

Zelda was still too numb to fight with him that she never ate on the couch. And the pillows he arranged _did_ look cozy, nearly as inviting as the blanket he held out for her, so she sat down with him despite herself. 

The first spoon nearly burned her tongue, but after that, the soup created a strange mix of a sweet and aromatic taste in her mouth. Sweet and foreign and _comforting_. Swallowing it left a pleasant balm in her mouth, her throat, even her belly. She closed her eyes and leaned her head against his shoulder, still trying to figure out the taste that lingered on her tongue. 

“Better?” He wrapped his arm around her to pull her closer. “It’s called creamy heart soup, I discovered it in Gerudo City. My second favorite soul food.” 

“What’s your first?”, she asked, while trying to balance a piece of fruit on her spoon to her mouth. 

“Curry.” 

He had somehow already finished his serve. 

“Should have known you like it hot”, she mumbled against her spoon and breathed to cool the soup down. His eyes flickered to her face, lingered on her spoon, darkening, but then his head snapped up, and he stood up to get himself another serve. 

They ate in silence when he came back, and he took his place close to her once again. It must have been two hours now, that she had called him, the panic written all over the words she had hardly gotten out, and he still hadn’t asked a single question. She saw it in his concerned eyes – it wasn't disinterest that kept him from asking. He just was here with her, giving her space, waiting for her to start. She placed the empty bowl on the coffee table with both hands, still not trusting her grip enough for one. 

“Ganondorf was there.” 

Link stilled. Lowered the spoon, put the bowl on the table. Blinked. 

“Excuse me?” 

The dread found its way under the blanket, all the way up to her shoulders, her nape, her skull. 

“Ganondorf. He was already there when we arrived. My father...” She shuddered violently. “He has persuaded my father somehow that we all could begin anew. Everything, _everything_ ”, she nearly gagged at the memory of the smell alone, “was full of bouquets of these ridiculous expensive Silent Princesses.” She drew her feet on the couch, hugged her legs, and leaned her head against her knees. “That’s how he sees me. _Silent princess_. A pretty puppet to show around. A dummy to get into my father’s business who doesn’t speak up.” 

Link’s hand was on her back. “But you are not.” He said, softly, firmly, rubbing soothing circles. 

“Not anymore.” She said and stared at the space between her legs and her stomach, still unable to look up. Dimly, she felt the urge to cry, but even her tears refused to come, no matter how hard she blinked. 

“It haunts me like my shadow. My old life, I mean. My old self. I will never emancipate myself from them. From me.” 

“But you did. You didn’t give in.” She turned her head a bit to look at him over her elbow and saw him smiling fondly at her, earnest even. How could he still have faith in this mess called Zelda? She certainly had not. 

“Knowing you, you even saved your face and kept our daughter away from them until you were able to get out.” 

She snorted. “Only to have a panic attack in the car.” 

Link changed his position, rearranging the covers around him, and held his arms open. 

“You need another hug. No arguing.” 

Her mouth fell open at his sudden forwardness. 

“Come on, don’t let me look like an idiot”, he chuckled. Well, that wouldn’t do, so she shifted, too, until she had a hold of his hoodie again. Apparently, he wasn’t satisfied and pulled her closer still, leaning himself back in the pillows until she was half upon him, snuggled at his chest, his arms wrapped around her. 

Skies, he had been right about that hug. She listened to the steady thud of his heartbeat, muffled through the fabric of his clothes. 

“You know”, he said after they had just stayed like that for a while, “what my new life taught me?” 

Zelda averted her gaze to see as much of his face as possible without giving up her human pillow. It was rare that he spoke about his new role at all, and she wouldn’t want to miss a single word. 

“I didn’t know if Tetra would let me in her life. All I could do was to do everything possible on _my_ side. It’s the same with your father. You can’t change him. At least not at will. But you can do your part. And you have.” 

She sighed, tracing a fold in the fabric of his hoodie, not wanting to admit that he maybe had a point. 

“But it’s not enough. I couldn’t even get home on my own.” 

“That’s another thing. I admire the bond you and Tetra have deeply, but I try not to be envious. I know her for half a year, we can’t be there where you and she are. Yet. That needs time.” Now she didn’t imagine the kiss on her head. “You have come so far, Zelda. Years of this shit don’t heal overnight. One step after another.” 

“I don’t know. I’m never enough”, she whispered and finally, finally the tears came. 

Link didn’t respond at first. His fingers played with her hair, caressed her back, squeezed her lightly when a particular heavy sob left her. Slowly, every moment in which she had stayed strong for Tetra, in which she had pretended to be ok for her image, for everyone, unraveled from her chest. Every forced smile and every straightened back traversed in a mist of tears and Link, Link just hold her through every single one. When the stream finally ebbed, he answered. Soft-spoken words, heavy with resolution. 

“The concept of being enough is nonsense. You would never think that Tetra isn’t enough. Stop thinking that about yourself.” 

Zelda sniffed and wiped the tears from her face with her sleeve. 

“How did I get so lucky to end up with someone like you in my life?” 

He smiled that absurdly handsome smile at her, and she didn’t fight the urge to smile back. 

“One evening you being yourself.” 

The fondness in his eyes nearly stopped her heart and rushed through her veins to her fingertips instead of her blood. It let the moisture pool in her eyes again. Trembling, hoping, suppressing, she looked away, not willing to break into a new ocean of tears. 

“Zelda.” He shifted under her and his voice was severe now. “Did he do something? Something we need to make a report about?” 

“An unwanted hand kiss is hardly enough for a complaint, I guess.” 

His muscles under her cheek stiffened and his eyes turned in a shade of ice-blue right in front of her. She shivered. 

“Not for the police. But that doesn’t apply for me.” 

She raised her head to properly look at him, eyes wide open, searching for confirmation in his face. 

“Link, please. Don’t do something stupid. He’s usually armed and there’s security staff in all his mansions.” 

Hearing that, Link’s expression turned into an amused grin. “You think I would walk straight into his place and beat him up for you?” 

Oh, god. A wave of unpleasant, stinging sweat hit her armpits. 

“That’s not...”, she stammered. 

His chuckle rumbled low in his chest and made her look up at him again. 

“You know me well, Zelda.” He laughed again. “But I can’t do that when we teach our daughter to use her words instead of hitting someone. Too bad for him, that hand-to-hand-combat isn’t my only skill.” 

“W-what do you mean?” 

Link shrugged with his free shoulder. “I can’t promise anything concrete, but I found some _inconsistencies_ back then, and well, I did some research in the meantime.” 

She stared at him. “And?!” 

“I'm an explorer and that means I have an address book full of crazy people.” 

“I'm not sure if I can follow.” 

He placed his hand over hers and squeezed gently. Searched her eyes. 

“Do you trust me?” 

It was so easy to get lost in this endless blue that she wasn’t sure anymore if they were still speaking about Ganondorf when she finally nodded. 

“Yes”, she breathed without breaking the eye contact, “Yes, I do.” 

“Then let me handle this, ok?” 

“No, risky behavior, promised?” 

“You have my word, Zelda. I just send some emails. Don’t worry.” 

She searched his eyes again, looking for a trace of doubt, but found none. He meant it. She quashed the urge to sink back in the safety of his arms – the events of the afternoon and evening were finally taking their toll on her. Sighing, she struggled to prop herself on her elbow. It must be late by now, she couldn’t steal more of his time, he had done so much for her already. She looked up to him, only to find him already looking at her. 

“You should get some sleep, Link. Take the car, I can rent it for another day.” 

“Do you want me to go?” 

The question caught her off guard. Thinking of lying in her own, cold bed without the warmth he had lent her the whole evening was suddenly very unappealing. 

“Uhm... that’s not it.” 

When he relaxed again, she snuggled timidly in his chest once more. He had just offered – kind of. “Five more minutes, ok?” 

“As you wish.” 

After three minutes, she was already as still as the sands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for ruining the nimbus of the silent princess. 😬  
> I do like the myth around it and the analogy, but the name really bothers me.  
> Zelda yells at Link, curses her goddess and speaks up to her King, my favorite chatterbox is anything but a 'silent princess'!
> 
> Why not 'sneaky princess' to include the stealth abilities? 😂


	19. Chapter 19

The next morning, Zelda awoke to the smell of fresh oatmeal and a finger poking in her stomach. 

“Mommy, Mommy, Link is already here!” Tetra bounced up and down in front of her and Zelda had trouble seeing her face through her bleary eyes. 

Link? 

Her pulse thrummed against her skull, and she felt a light nausea spreading in her stomach. 

Wait. 

Link?! 

H-had they been drinking? 

Oh, goddesses … 

Did they...? 

Eyes wild in panic, she looked down at her and raised her hand to her heart in relief when she found herself fully dressed. 

No. She hadn’t been drinking. Her father. Ganondorf. Link, who had picked them up in the middle of a storm without questions. Who had cooked for her to raise her spirits. Who had rocked her through her tears when she couldn’t go on anymore. Her headache was caused by _crying_ , not drinking. Nonetheless, she blushed heavily when she thought about the fact that they had slept all night cuddled up against each other on the couch. 

“I said you should wake her tenderly, Tetra.” Link chuckled from the door and came over to her. “Daruk will pick us all up in half an hour. If you want to take a shower you might want to get up now.” 

She leaped to her feet, throwing the blankets from her shoulders. “30 minutes? Oh, Hylia, we will never be ready in time.” 

Link laughed at her and tossed her an apple. “It’s only you who isn’t ready. Tetra and I have already had breakfast, she is dressed and I prepared her lunchbox.” 

She caught the apple barely, grabbed his wrist, and pushed the apple back into his hand. 

“Stop it, Link. Stop being so caring this instant. I don’t know how to deal with that!” 

The apple was back in her hand in a split-second and Link closed his hands around hers and the fruit. “Better get used to it, Zelda. And now hurry up or Daruk will ask silly questions when you enter the truck in nothing but a towel.” 

Of course, Daruk asked silly questions although she was neat and tidy dressed. Link returned from the kindergarten only five minutes after he had left and jumped jauntily into the truck again. Somehow, the few times he took her there, he managed to get Tetra into motion at the door much faster than Zelda herself. 

Daruk continued their way to the National Museum, honking at some kids who stared at their smartphone instead of looking at the traffic. 

“Zombies”, he muttered. 

Zelda glanced at the clock of the truck. They would make it on time. 

“Sorry, that I ruined your evening, guys. And thank you for your help this morning.” 

Daruk laughed and nudged Link’s shoulder. 

“Ah, there isn’t much I wouldn’t do for my tiny Hylian friends. Little guy here always knows how to return a favor. I’m happy that I could help you out.” 

He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. 

“So... it’s official now with you two?” 

Zelda choked on her coffee to go while Link dropped the keys of his motorcycle. 

“What? I thought you were courting now.” 

“It’s called _dating_ our days, Daruk.” Link grinned, picked his keys up again, and shook his head. “And I guess, you can call us friends, without risking a punch from either of us.” 

Something bubbled in Zelda’s chest and she nodded. 

_Friends_. 

“Sounds good to me, too.” She smiled and received a wink from Link in return that made her all warm and cozy inside. 

Daruk steered the truck into a parking lot and Zelda hopped off, holding the door open for Link. 

“Aren’t you coming?” 

“Nope.” Link smiled. “We are getting the bike.” 

“Oh.” She counted the mud spots on the car wing. “Sorry again.” 

“Stop apologizing, Zelda. You are welcome, really.” He chuckled. “Although you had perfect timing since I’m leaving for a trip to Termina tomorrow, kick-off meeting for the exhibition. Will take me a bit more than twenty minutes then.” 

“I think I can manage a few days on my own.” 

“If you say so…”, he grinned and ducked down, anticipating a slap from her. 

She stuck her tongue out instead and slammed the door shut. “Bye, you moron. Don’t forget to come back.” 

She waved at Daruk who had watched their exchange through the open window with an amused expression. 

“Thanks again, Daruk. See you around!” 

She glanced at the clock on her phone. Wow, she hadn’t been early like that in _ages_ , she even would have time for a chat with Urbosa! 

Popping her head in Urbosa’s door, she frowned, when her godmother already awaited her, grinning like an idiot. 

“Hey, are you here to badmouth a little before work?”, she laughed. 

Knitting her brows together in confusion, Zelda entered the office. 

“What are you talking about?” 

“Didn’t check your news app this morning?” 

News? The headline in the newspaper in the coffee shop had been something about environmental protection as far as she could recall. 

“Uhm, no. My morning was… a little bit outside my daily routine.” She coughed and ignored the amused gaze Urbosa was giving her. “Not what you think.” 

“Yeah, of course.” Her voice was dripping with irony. “Anyway, you might find it interesting, that your ex-husband... well, look at it yourself.” She turned her screen a bit towards Zelda, who made a beeline for the desk. 

_ Ganondorf Dragmire finally lets his mask slip  _

Zelda’s eyes flew over the article, almost skipping words in her haste, having to reread whole sentences to make sense of them. 

_ The famous investigative journalist who is known under the pseudonym ‘Traysi’ has finally set her focus on Hyrule’s colorful business leader. Commercial fraud, tax evasion, misuse of charitable funds, corruption – her list is long and ugly.  _

The article gave a quick summary of some details and on the side of the page a box blinked ‘update’: _“Beetle, economics minister, confirms investigation against Dragmire: We are taking these accusations very seriously. The public prosecutor's office will start to work today.”_

She stared at the last passage, where ‘Traysi’ had given a statement. 

_ “I’ve been hot on his heels for the last half-year now”, she confirmed, “but I received a pack of data from one of my sources yesterday evening and in combination with my own research I’m finally able to tighten the noose.”  _

Urbosa cackled and was clearly in a very good mood about this incident and Zelda couldn’t blame her. Schadenfreude was mean, but Ganondorf had done everything to earn it, so she didn’t stop the grin on her face. Perhaps she should be more surprised, but in all honesty, this was just a logical extension of his character. 

“Oh, there’s more! You should see social media. Traysi must have some connections to the Shiekah, too. Do you know that splinter group who have dedicated themselves to internet security and anti-corruption policy? Impa, one of them, has posted a list of all the firms, brands, and products of his trade empire with an appeal to boycott them.” She grinned so broadly, that Zelda could see her golden back tooth. “It has been shared over 6.000 times until now and it’s just eight o'clock in the morning.” 

Zelda laughed easily. “Well, I always told him to engage more in social media, but he regarded it as a waste of time and money. Guess he gets his payback now.” She pointed at the screen. “Oh, and I can’t believe he dragged the charity foundation in! That was the only thing he entrusted me with, and they had clean hands as long as they were under my watch. No wonder he didn’t let me see anything besides that...” 

“Well, perhaps it was for the better.” Urbosa laid a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “You had enough on your plate as it was at that time. It wouldn’t have been wise to add whistleblowing to the list.” 

“Yes, maybe. Good to know that others have the courage to stand up against corruption and other crimes,” she smiled and looked through the window at the empty parking range. 

Urbosa eyed her with interest. 

“Are you referring to someone special?” 

“Yes”, she breathed, “Someone very special.” 

And with that, she blew Urbosa a kiss and made her way to her lab, a grin plastered on her face for hours. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> @renardCos: While writing I had in mind that the intervention of the economics minister is more a logical consequence to Traysi's work than Link's doing, but I left it open, so it's up to you! 😉


	20. Chapter 20

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today just a little build-up for the second act. Thanks again for all the nice comments!

Lipstick? Yes. Cash for the taxi? Here. Ballet slippers, if her heels would kill her? Yes, too. Her purse? Everything in order. Keys, that she didn't have to wake up Link when she came home? Yep. Phone, in case Tetra and Link needed her? Right in her hand. 

Zelda took a breath to calm her nerves. 

Link leaned on the door frame of her apartment with crossed arms. 

“Don’t worry about us. We are going to be just fine.” He smiled at her. 

“I know. It’s just, well it’s the first time I go out since Tetra.” 

“All the more reasons to enjoy your evening.” He nodded, but something in his face shifted. “Uh, but Zelda? Since it’s a company event and I know what happened the last time… please consider using protection this time.” He grinned broadly, the bastard. 

“Just in case”, he coughed, “Revali gets what he wants.” 

Zelda decided to ignore his tease and raised her eyebrows. “Revali?” 

“Yeah. He is crazy about you. Don’t tell me, you didn’t notice”, he laughed. 

“Eh, no. Thank you for the warning.” 

“Ah, totally egoistic reasons on my side. I have absolutely no desire to add Revali to our little patchwork family.” His grin turned even smugger when he leaned in and whispered in her ear: “If you want a second child, just ask me. I handle Tetra just fine; I can handle two. Just say a word and I’ll make you another one.” Then, he gave her a demonstrative innocent peck on the cheek and shoved her out of her apartment. 

Behind the door, Zelda had to catch her breath. Nope, not bastard. _Evil_ bastard. Definitely an evil bastard. He was joking, _of course_ , was he joking. She brushed her fingers over the skin, where his hot breath had just grazed her neck. He was doing that on purpose, she was sure of it. He _must_ know that she still thought about his palms sliding up her thighs, his fingertips pressing into her back, his hands pulling her down in a kiss, every time he teased her like this. 

The first time her mind had flashed her images of heated kisses in an elevator and more, she had tried to push them away, but it was to no avail. She couldn’t forget how exactly he had landed in her life, and she had made her peace with it. It didn’t stand in the way of their friendship, so why bother? He _was_ attractive and the sex _had_ been – damn, the bus! 

She took to her heels to close the 700 feet gap between her and the stop. Panting, she entered the vehicle. 

“Alone this evening?”, the driver smiled at her, before he closed the doors behind her. 

Zelda took a second glance and her lips turned upwards while she tried to catch her breath. At least her blush was easily covered by the cold and her sprint. 

“Yes, night out.” 

“Lucky you”, the driver laughed. 

“That I am.” Zelda smiled back. 

“Suits you.” He nodded in the direction of her skirt when she went further to take her seat. “See you Monday morning!” 

“Oh? Thank you! Bye!” Zelda’s cheeks already began to hurt from grinning. The first compliment already on the bus (well, the second, if Link’s widening pupils when she had left her room count) and an evening all for herself – she should have done this earlier. 

Being a single Mom had been a challenging task with rarely a minute for herself. The only time she hadn't been with Tetra, she had been at work, which hardly counted as a break. She had hurried to Telma after work to spend at least a few hours with her daughter, squeezed buying the groceries and other errands somewhere in between, had tried (and often enough failed) to bring something edible _and_ healthy on the table. Had Tetra put to bed. Afterward, she had tidied up the most necessary things, had prepared breakfast to save time in the morning, and had collapsed on the sofa. The few times she had asked someone to babysit Tetra, she had had important appointments. The relationship with her father had always been difficult – he did visit them, but she wasn’t sure if she was comfortable enough to leave Tetra alone with him for a few hours. At least as long as she hadn't been able to speak for herself. The only person to ask had been Urbosa, who was a very busy woman. She had never dared to request her for some free time, although Urbosa swore she could do that anytime. 

The first time, the door had clang shut after Link and Tetra who went playing tag in the backyard, she had rushed to the washing machine, getting the laundry done. Halfway through stuffing the clothes in the drum, she had paused – the unfamiliar silence in her apartment making her think. Not once had she been alone in the last years and now that she was, _laundry_ was her priory? 

It had been the first and the last time that she had made this mistake. Finally, she had time for a coffee, when Link and Tetra played hide-and-seek in the apartment. A coffee that was still hot when she drank it. She could even read her favorite blogs unhurriedly when the two prepared dinner some days! Later, Link started to make small trips with Tetra in the afternoon. He liked to show her the nature around Castletown and Zelda used the opportunity to take a long bath or read a book – it was heaven. 

Link _was_ a gem, although he could be rather clueless from time to time. When Urbosa invited them both to today's party, he had been so excited, babbling ten minutes or longer about an evening of bar-hopping with her. It was sweet – once he set his eyes on a project or a challenge, he was unstoppable. The only problem was that he often missed seeing the wood for the trees. When she had remarked that they could hardly ask Urbosa – still their only baby babysitter beside from each other – to stay with Tetra, he had stared at her with wide eyes. As if he had forgotten that he had a daughter. Well. He probably had. She wouldn’t have been surprised when something like that had happened after a few weeks, his fatherhood had been a revelation for him after all. Since he spent nearly every Saturday evening with them and read a bedtime story for Tetra for a year now on these occasions, he _could_ have thought about it on his own. But back to the gem part – once he had realized their situation, he had argued her out of staying with Tetra, swearing it was about time for him to try an evening with her all on his own. 

She knew it was silly to be excited over an evening with coworkers, but she couldn’t help it. It was the first time in years she had a night out, and she was going to enjoy it.


	21. Chapter 21

“Ouch!” Link cursed. “Perhaps we should tidy up your room before we go to bed, Tetra? Stepping on a Lego brick is no fun.” 

“Hm?” Tetra looked up from the parking garage, she and Link had built earlier. “I need them. Can’t tidy up.” 

“Of course, you need them. But they are everywhere. How about that: I tidy up the way to your bed, and we do the rest tomorrow?” 

“But I need them tomorrow, too!” 

“Ok, then don’t call it tidying up. We’ll build a third floor for your garage and use every brick on the floor for that.” 

“Oooook”, Tetra yawned. 

“Time for bed, I suppose,” Link laughed and took her hand. 

They made their way over to the bathroom and Link prepared Tetra’s toothbrush. 

“Ok, let’s go then,” Link crouched in front of her, toothbrush in his hand. 

“No.” Tetra crossed her little arms and shook her head. 

“Hm? But we have to brush your teeth, Tetra.” 

“No.” 

Link scratched his head. What was wrong? That had never been a problem when she was with Zelda as far as he could recall. He couldn’t just skip cleaning her tooth on the first evening he took care of her alone. 

“If we don’t clean your teeth, they might decay, Tetra. We have to.” He tried to convince her in the severest voice he could muster. Was it just him or did he sound ridiculous pretending to be strict? It always sounded so easy when the other parents talked like that in kindergarten. 

“No, I don’t want to. Go away!” She began to cry and started to punch him with her little fists. Link blinked. She couldn’t really hurt him, but he was flabbergasted, how quickly she escalated. He grabbed her wrists to stop her. 

“Hey, calm down, and let me brush your teeth. We are done in no time at all.” 

“Ow! You hurt me, Link.” Tetra tried to free herself. 

His eyes went wide and he released her. No. That was wrong, he never wanted to hurt her. His eyebrows drew together, and he sat back on his heels. What now? He could tell her, he would skip her bedtime story, if she didn’t cooperate. He frowned upon himself. It was an empty threat, he would read a story anyway. They both loved it. And most importantly, it was a threat. No, there had to be another way. He looked helplessly at her tiny form, shaken with rage and sobs, her high-pitched voice screaming “no” over and over again. Goddesses, nearly a year now that he tried himself as a dad, and he still hadn’t had the hang of it. He couldn’t even convince his own daughter to brush her teeth without causing an uproar. 

Perhaps he could just outwait her outburst, yes, he would simply wait until she cooled down. Circling the toothbrush in his fingers, he leaned back. He just wanted to prepare her for bed, for Hylia’s sake! Was that too much to ask? He should start reading these parents' blogs, Zelda fancied so much. 

Sighing, he suppressed a smile. Zelda. Zelda would know what to do. She was crazy about parental education and was a pro to finding a good solution for both sides. He had learned so much from her already, but the screech resonating in his ears told him that it wasn’t enough. 

_No way,_ he would call Zelda to come back from her first night out in years, just because of a stupid toothbrush. He could do that. _Eventually_. Just a new challenge. What did Tetra need? He ruffled his hair and glanced at her. Her body was shaken now, her eyes puffy from crying, but she was still angry… or was she sad now? Skies, he must be the dumbest father ever. However, she looked like she needed help, he couldn’t wait it out any longer. 

“Tetra? Can I… can I help you?” 

“No!” 

Well, not the easy way out. Ok, then another attempt. 

“You… you are really angry, are you?” 

“Ye…hes”, she sobbed. Good, that was progress after all. 

“Ok, you… you are angry. You are angry with me?”, he tried. 

“Hmhm.” She nodded shuddering, slowly coming back from her outburst. 

“Oh, all right. So, you are angry with me… because I wanted to brush your teeth?” 

“Yes. No!”, she started sobbing again and Link sucked a breath in. Wow, that was a game of inches. 

“So, you are angry with me, but not because I want to brush your teeth...” She nodded and then it hit him, “Do I do anything wrong?” 

“Yes, wrong!”, she screeched, her little fist both clenched on her side. 

Link suppressed another smile. She looked too cute when she tried to stare him down. A lot like Zelda, actually, but with blue eyes. But he really shouldn’t laugh at her on top of it all, it was his fault that he was so ignorant and not hers. For Tetra was this serious business. 

“Ok, you are angry, because I do something wrong. Can you tell me what I do wrong? Or… or do you want a hug first?” He held his arms open for her. She sniffed once and threw herself into his arms. He held her tight and stroked her hair to soothe her further. At least they were making progress. She leaned her head against his shoulder, smearing her tears and snot on his shirt, and whispered: “Mommy always sings the toothbrush song with me.” 

“So, you got angry and sad, because I didn’t brush your teeth like Mommy?”, Link answered softly and sat her on his knee when her arms fell slack. Tetra nodded, wiping her nose. Link leaned his head against hers and exhaled his breath before he continued. 

“Ok. Ok. Do you want to teach me this song or do we do something on our own? I could, I don’t know…we could count every tooth I brush?” 

Tetra beamed at him as if she had done nothing else the last twenty minutes, “Yes, counting is awesome!” 

Link finally allowed himself to smile at her and shook his head, while he hugged her again. How did so many emotions fit in such a small human? And how was he supposed to deal with that? He was hardly fit enough to deal with his own emotions!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a side note because I know that so many parents are under (self-imposed or not) pressure to do everything right the whole time:  
> A situation like this can be pretty normal when you have a spirited child. Some kids escalate rather quickly and it is completely ok that you are not in control the entire time. It can be very difficult to get through to them. Link is doing a good job, he just has identity problems as a dad, so he thinks he is doing horrible. He is not!  
> And of course, there are always different ways to solve a situation like this! As long as you keep in mind that kids are humans and should be treated as such, there's no right or wrong.


	22. Chapter 22

Zelda slowed her pace when she left the bus. She snuggled further in her knitted scarf and buried her hands in the pockets of her coat. The way to the bar was short and it was eight o'clock sharp now. She stopped in front of a fabric store, and the prospect of sitting alone in the bar and waiting for the others made the colorful fabrics suddenly very fascinating. 

A twirl of wind messed with her hair and the rustling sound behind her drove her to turn around. 

“Revali”, she nodded. 

Revali greeted her with a mix of a bow and a curtsy. 

“Zelda. I’m glad you made it.” 

He looked behind her at the shop window and pointed at the fabrics. 

“You know, the Rito are famous for their magnificent quilts.” 

Zelda brushed over her braid, searching for loose strands, and resumed her path along Revali. 

“Are they? I must admit that I’m not very familiar with Rito craftsmanship.” 

He puffed himself out. “They are. I would love to show you someday.” 

Zelda averted her gaze from her shoes to the entrance of the bar, where Robbie and Daruk already waited. 

“Sure. Why not.” She answered and put on a smile when she caught him looking at her. 

Slipping through the door Daruk held open for all, the warm and humid air of the location hit her cold cheeks. A bar. How long has it been since she was in a _bar_? Keeping the spirits up, Urbosa called occasions like that where she invited a group of random workmates. For Urbosa it was probably not random, Zelda was sure she had some kind of pattern behind the circles she picked, but since she hadn’t been able to attend anyway until today, she had never wasted another thought about it. 

She planned to stick with Robbie until she had a survey who exactly was attending and soon enough they were discussing their favorite topic. They had already spent hours debating over the phenomena of ancient weapons and their fragility, but there was always something to add. Robbie was sure the weapons became fragile over the centuries, while Zelda believed that they had been frail from the beginning. Just when Robbie tried to convince her that a whole army equipped with breakable weapons was simply hilarious, Daruk paid for a round with the ambition to toast to a wonderful evening. Obviously, she was the only one who disliked beer, which brought her several remarks from her co-workers and a waitress with a single glass of wine served just for her. 

She had finished half of it when Daruk raised his booming voice again. He had meant to speak with Urbosa, who had arrived at half-past nine, but since he wasn’t exactly quiet, anyone around Zelda’s table listened anyway. 

“Hey, didn’t you invite Link, too, Urbosa? I thought he would be here since he is back in Hyrule for good now.” 

Urbosa waved her hand, bringing her numerous bracelets to jingle. “He is sitting his daughter today.” 

Revali, who was sitting at their table too, crossed his wings and shook his head. “That guy. Won’t tell you anything about his life even if you hold a pistol to his head. Are you sure that Link of all people coaxed someone to father his child? A real woman?” 

Daruk raised his index finger to say something, but Urbosa elbowed him hard, so he snapped his mouth shut with an ‘ouch’. 

“Yes, his lovely daughter has a mother, too, Revali. You would be surprised by how real she is.” She winked at Zelda, who stared at her godmother with wide eyes. 

“Ey, Revali, what about your divine beast project? Are you getting along?”, asked Daruk, who finally got the hint in an attempt to change the topic. Zelda sagged back on her barstool when Revali started to give Daruk an update. She wasn’t sure if she was ready to let _everybody_ know, that she and Link had a daughter. Being a single mom was one thing, but acknowledging Link as Tetra’s father in front of all co-workers would mean _rumors_. Gossip about the status of their relationship (just friends) – about their sex life (not existing beside a one-night-stand years ago). Being in the focus as a daughter of a well-known industry mogul, Zelda was painfully used to talk and if possible, she would prefer her workplace as the oasis it used to be. 

She turned her attention back to Robbie, who was now babbling about a girl named Cherry. He was of course not in love with her, but he spent the next half hour explaining her in detail, why Cherry was an outstanding woman. Zelda smiled a small smile at him, the poor Robbie hadn’t been blessed with kind women lately. His fancy attitude seemed to attract the wrong people. Maybe he should start to wear a shirt under his button-down shirt. 

“Perhaps you should call her. I’ve got a good impression of what you told me.” 

Robbie eyed her suspiciously from head to toe. “You? No ‘she’ll break your heart anyway’ this time?” 

Zelda flashed him a reassuring smile and before she could answer, he made a beeline for the exit without a further word of goodbye, phone already in his hands. She laughed and shook her head. Love made funny things with people. 

“Gods, is he your bodyguard or what? Thought he would never leave your side.”, Revali let himself fall on the newly free bar stool with an eye roll in the direction of the exit. “Here, I got you something to drink.” He pushed one of the two beer bottles in his hands in her direction. 

“Thank you,“ Zelda put her smile on and sighed behind her hand. 

“Think nothing of it. A lady like you shouldn’t be without a drink on an evening like this. Plus, I can imagine, being a single mom with a part-time job can be tough.” He looked at her with something he probably meant as a reassuring smile. Zelda clinched one fist at her site to stop the prickle of rage which began to rise from her fingertips. Was that his flirting strategy? She was working her ass off in the lab for explorers like him, and he still saw her as a Mom first! She wasn’t exactly rich (although her situation had improved considerably since Link was transferring her child support), but that didn’t mean she couldn’t afford her drink. The taste on her tongue was bitter, and she wasn’t sure if it came from the beer, she had politely sipped or from Revali’s arrogance. 

Oh, how she wished Link would be here. Link respected her as a scholar, no matter how many hours she was able to work. They hadn’t many points of contact in their working routine, but he always valued her opinion. He asked her about her knowledge about the artifacts he was looking for, or they discussed different topics for his blog. Revali had just briefed Daruk about his work, but _she_ was only the single mom. 

Zelda took a deep breath and tried to cool down again. Well, perhaps she was a bit rash. He could be nervous after all or unsure, even if he didn’t look like that. She would try to give him a second chance. 

“Link told me, that you are working at divine beast Vah Medoh currently?”, she tried politely to make conversation. 

“Link?” He raised one brow but said nothing more. “Well, yeah, I am solving the ancient puzzles inside, so that it can be opened for the public. Quite the project, if you ask me. Clearly the most important in the last years for the National Museum.” 

Zelda tried to hide her frown with a gesture to smooth her hair again. Was he referring to Link’s former project in Termina? She knew that the two had some kind of rivalry, but even comparing the two projects was a bit silly. Of course, restoring a divine beast for the public eye was an important project, but Vah Medoh was the last out of four to restore. Even if every divine beast had some specialties, Revali could rely heavily on the experiences of the other three projects. 

Link on the other hand had to build up a base in another country before he and his team could even start to trek the artifacts down. When the first mask had been discovered, the newspapers in both countries had been full of pictures and reports. The historical journals had even interviewed Link. The era of the hero of time had been nothing more than a legend before and that Link and his team had found not only one, but several artifacts out of that age was nothing less than a historic revolution. Only a fool would deny Link this recognition. 

Zelda tried to shake the feeling of irritation from her body. She just wanted to have a bit of fun tonight, but it was impossible to flirt with Revali. They were co-workers with a common topic, this shouldn’t be so difficult? She was able to flirt with Link just fine, why not with him? 

Revali seemed completely unaware of her uncomfortable feelings and went on with anecdotes of ‘his’ divine beast. Normally, Zelda enjoyed listening to anecdotes from the explorers, because she hardly left her lab. As much as she loved her brushes, microscopes, and books - hearing first-hand how her samples had been discovered, had always that breath of adventure she longed for. The only problem was, that Revali’s stories were hardly covered bragging. They completely lacked the fine sense of humor and self-mockery, she was used from Link’s. 

One time, Link had told her how he had climbed the cliff of a snowy mountain, searching for the best way up for hours. When he finally had arrived at the top, fingers numb from the harsh climb and face red from the biting cold, his destination in sighting distance, he had discovered that the backside of the cliff looked like the perfect slope. So, he had pulled out his snowboard, had raced down the slope – which had indeed been excellent, he was even able to perform several spins, he had assured her – and had ruined the work of an entire morning in twenty minutes. ‘Totally worth it’, he had laughed at her shocked face and had claimed, that the following climb had only taken two hours because he had already known the best route. 

Another time, he recounted how he had spent several days in a dungeon, figuring out nasty puzzles only to discover dead ends and empty chests. He had stubbornly stayed in the inhospitable place, knowing the mask he was looking for had to be somewhere, and then, after endless hours of seeking, he had finally discovered a hidden door. For the last puzzle, he had to use a pair of scales, but when he had lifted a nearby rock to put it on the scale pan, a Korok had popped up and had startled Link so heavily, that he had dropped the rock directly on his left foot. He had to spend two additional days in the dungeon to recover from his slip-up. Nonetheless, he had sworn to Zelda, that the inhospitable conditions had been no problem at all, but the constantly chatting Korok nearly got the best of him.

Zelda couldn’t help but smile fondly at her memories. That was how you recount a story. 

“What are you smiling at, Zelda? The story wasn’t even finished.” Revali frowned. 

Oh. Just thinking of the father of – “my daughter. Your story reminded me of her.” 

“Working with magnetism? Well, never mind. Where is she today, by the way?” 

Zelda didn’t know if the wine had made her bold or if she was simply fed up with Revali and his arrogant attitude, but she couldn’t stand him a second longer. 

“Oh, she is with Link tonight,” she grinned. 

Revali nearly spilled his beer. “Link,” he coughed, “is the father of your child?” 

Well, at least he wasn’t dumb. 

“Yep. And before you ask, yes, he is doing a great job just like with everything else.” 

Revali looked even more shocked if that was possible. “Everything… else? You mean, you are a couple? Wow, I never would have seen that coming.” 

“No, no, just friends,” Zelda laughed easily and waved her hands. 

“So… you _are_ single? I must admit, that I’m a bit confused.” 

Urbosa, who had observed the whole scene, laughed. 

“Don’t be fooled, Revali. It’s a matter of time until these two lovebirds open their eyes and see what anyone else sees. I don’t want to ruffle your feathers, but you’re no competition for that boy. Get her out of your head, I can introduce you to one of my Gerudo sisters if you want to.” Urbosa winked at Revali who looked utterly bewildered. 

“Urbosa! You are horrible!”, Zelda half laughingly tried to stop, what was too late anyway. 

Daruk clapped Revali on his back who had dropped himself on the stool beside him. 

“I’m gonna _kill_ him for letting me walk right into that one.” Revali was still shaking his head in disbelief. ”Don’t tell me you knew that, too.” 

Daruk scratched his neck with his giant hands, a gesture he had picked up from Link or vice versa. “Well, I’m his best buddy, dude, so… yeah, I knew that.” 

Revali was now sitting on his barstool, shoulders dropped, and staring at his beer. Zelda wanted to go home, but she paused when she saw him like that. She didn’t intend to make him upset. Comparing Revali to Link _was_ a hopeless case, but that didn’t mean, she could be cruel to him. Well, it was mainly Urbosa who couldn’t keep her mouth shut, but she felt the all too familiar hole of guilt in her stomach, too. She straightened her back, made her way over to him, and tapped his shoulder. 

“Uhm, Revali?” The Rito turned his head slightly with a tormented mien, ready to take another blow from her. Zelda was taken aback by his facial expression. Perhaps Link had been right and Revali truly had a crush on her? 

“I wanted to apologize before I go home. I didn’t mean to be rude to you.” 

Revali looked up in surprise. “No, you weren’t rude. Urbosa was.” He sighed deeply, covering his eyes with his right wing. “I... I meant it when I said I would like to show you Rito village, but I wasn’t aware you are dating... Link.” 

“We are not dating.” 

They just spent lunchtime together, when it was possible. Twice a week at least. He stayed for a latte macchiato after he brought Tetra back. Just a couple of minutes. Or a couple of hours. She called him when she needed somebody to talk to. And maybe when she had messed up their dinner and wanted his advice to fix it. Or when she missed his tease. They cooked together and chatted the night away on Saturday evenings in her kitchen – oh boy. Zelda felt a twinge of panic risen from her stomach, was she... was she dating Link?! Did Link expect an outcome out of these evenings? 

No, no, she needed to calm down. Of course, he didn’t. They were friends and that was fine. She would remind him tomorrow anyway, just to be sure. She had sworn an oath to herself! Exhaling a breath, she blinked forcefully. No, they were definitely not dating. 

Revali drummed his feathers on the table, so she continued. 

“Well, I’m not interested in dating anyone, for that matter, so it’s not necessarily about you. I didn’t mean to upset you.” She smiled at him and meant it this time. 

“That’s a pity, but nothing doing.” Revali shrugged. Zelda took a step backward and waved everybody goodbye. “I’m off, guys. A hangover is no fun with a toddler, so I guess I have to stop now.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I try to post tomorrow because I love the next chapter very much, but we finally have snow and I'm probably busy with engaging the kiddos in a giant snow fight.


	23. Chapter 23

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, good news: I managed to post today.  
> Bad news: I won't be able to post tomorrow and I'm not even sure about Monday. I'm not happy with the next chapter and want to rewrite parts of it. I don't know how long that will take me, my writing oportunities are always quite random and short.
> 
> You can follow me on tumblr, I'm zeldaelmo over there, too, and I always make a post when a new chapter is out.

Cautiously, Link tried to sneak out under Tetra’s arm when she had fallen asleep. She didn’t stir. He returned to his pack which he had left on the sofa - his sleeping place for tonight - to fetch a new shirt, only to discover that he had packed two boxer shorts and no spare shirt. Great. Obviously, he was able to pack flawless for a two-week-trip through the Hebra mountains, but a simple sleepover overcharged him. A look in the mirror confirmed, what he had already suspected. The shirt was beyond recovering for today and he didn’t want to use Zelda’s laundry automat and dryer without permission. 

In the bathroom, he had to stand on his tiptoes to reach the shelf with the detergent. His face turned in an amused grimace. As if Zelda had planned this. At least she wasn’t here to tease him about their height difference _again_ , he snorted and grabbed the sticky bottle. 

After wringing his shirt in the sink, he turned towards the small laundry rack in Zelda’s bathroom. He hung up his shirt next to Zelda’s leggings and Tetra’s sweater and wiped his hands dry on his jeans. His gaze lingered on the three pieces on the laundry rack. _Right_. Oddly right did his shirt look between Tetra’s and Zelda’s stuff and the image gave him a pleasant tingling on his scalp. The tingling turned fast into a whole-body shudder – it was early winter and although the heater was running smoothly, it was still a bit chilly – at least shirtless. 

Rubbing the goosebumps on his arms, he helped himself to a coke from Zelda’s fridge, before he went back to the living room to cuddle in the blankets on the sofa. He paused in front of it and traced his fingers over the wooden ornaments of a large picture frame that hung above. Zelda’s father had gifted her a family portrait, but not a photo, like normal families. No, a _painting_. 

Zelda had guided him into the living room without a greeting when he had arrived for their Saturday evening cooking session, her fists at her side and her cheeks bright red. She stopped in front of the painting, and he was gone. Zelda, the mastermind of the Museum’s labs in a ball gown fitting for a princess. Zelda, an emancipated woman in the best sense of the word, her back straight and her hands clasped in her lap. Zelda, who loved to flirt and laugh with him, her eyes glittering with mischief, smiling a regal smile. It had taken minutes for him to come back. Every time, he had looked at the real Zelda next to him and back to the baby-blue one in the painting, he had busted in a new fit of laughter. Wiping the tears from his hurting face, he had taken the rest of the painting in. 

He had a hard time not to double over again from laughing when he had discovered Tetra. His bug-loving girl, the dirt-magnet Tetra in a matching blue lace-dress, sitting on a _plush cushion_. Finally, when his ragged breath had calmed down and his stomach had stopped hurting, he hadn’t been able to blame Zelda for her fuming rage. Her father dominated the center of the painting, the two women arranged around him like devoted lapdogs. He couldn’t have sent her a worse signal after all the things that had happened between them. 

He wasn’t sure, if the painting had given her the rest or if it was the general progress, she was making, but the next time her father had patronized her, she had stood up and at least tried to put him in his place. Smirking, he released the frame. It seemed that not everybody was pleased with this new version of Zelda, but he couldn’t have been prouder. 

He snuggled in the blankets, but his grin faded, and he swallowed. One of the few advantages of having no family left – you didn’t have to live up to expectations. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and flipped through the pictures until he stopped at one which was a photo from an old picture frame. The woman and his father were looking at him from the picture, but when he turned his gaze inside him, it stirred only hollowness. The smiles on their faces went through him like a hand would cut through a ghost. He stared and stared back at the screen until it went black. After his father’s death twelve years ago, it had taken him weeks to donate all the stuffed animals and toys he had brought him from his missions to the orphanages in Castletown. When he had cleared his old family home out, the picture had been the only reminder of the woman who must be his mother in the whole house. He had looked at it often, now that he was a father himself. Looking for help, for guidance, he wasn’t sure. Reassurance perhaps. 

It was always the same. Nothing. No aching disappointment that he had no memories of his mother, no simmering rage that his father left him for months with changing nannies, no hint of a hidden love for one of them – just nothing. An edgeless emptiness. 

He activated the screen again and flipped further to his favorite picture in a much-practiced motion. Mipha and him sitting arm in arm on a cliff at Lulu’s Lake. They were both still dripping wet and had the same exhausted, lucky grin plastered on their faces – they had spent the whole afternoon practicing diving up the waterfalls. The hollowness in his chest filled immediately with the warmth of Mipha’s golden eyes, sending out rays of sunshine to his fingertips. He mirrored the grin of his much younger self – you don’t have to be related by blood for being family. 

He glanced at the time in the corner of the screen and opened a text message. 

“Still up?” 

Instead of an answer, the phone vibrated seconds later in his hands. 

“Hey, Link.” Mipha’s soft voice came from the speaker, and he saw her face illuminated from the blue glow of Zora’s Domain on his screen. “In need of a babysitter advice?” 

“No”, he laughed. “She’s sleeping soundly in her bed for now.” 

“So, everything went well?” 

“Mostly... It’s still difficult for me, without Zelda as a sidekick.” 

“Well”, Mipha smiled, “she’s sleeping now and you didn’t call Zelda back. Sounds good to me.” 

“Yeah, maybe you are right. What about you? Sidon keeps you busy, too?” 

“No, sweet Sidon would never kid around with me”, Mipha laughed and retold how she tried to teach him a spin attack underwater. 

“He needs some practice, but he did well for the first time. I’m really proud. You had much more trouble.” 

“I’m a _Hylian_ ”, Link deadpanned. 

“You are.” She grinned. “So, what about your little Hylian romance?” 

“Mipha.” Link rolled his eyes. 

"What?” Mipha grinned harder. “Any progress?” 

“I don’t know”, he sighed and buried his face in his hand for a moment. “She wore a black pencil skirt today, Mipha. I nearly pressed her into the door frame to kiss her senseless.” 

And what a close call that had been. He hadn’t missed the blush which dusted Zelda’s cheeks and the sharp breath she had inhaled behind the door. Seeing, that she was thinking about sex with him _right in front of him_ and knowing, how soft and sweet and hungry her lips had kissed him once, had sent dozens of shock waves through his whole body. 

“Perhaps you should do it the next time.” Mipha shrugged. 

“No. She still needs time.” 

“You can’t wait forever.” 

Link raised his brows. “And why not?” 

_“Friend zone”_ , Mipha sing-sang. 

Link groaned and pressed his palm to his eyes. “Yeah, ok. But I won’t win anything if she shies away from me.” 

“She won’t. You are the perfect picture of Mr. Right.” 

“She will.” 

“Time to find out,” Mipha smirked. “Get naked and wait in her bed until she comes home.” 

Link stared open-mouthed at his phone. _What?!_ He glanced at the ID, but sure enough, there was written ‘Mipha’, and well, it _was_ Mipha’s face on the screen. He blinked hard. 

“Mipha? What… what happened?” 

She looked at him in confusion before her face lit up. 

“Hyrule Video. We finally got high-speed internet in the Domain. I’m half-way through Games of Hyrulean Thrones and I already finished Rito Housewives, Sex and other secrets in Gerudo-City and The big triforce theory.” 

Link stared a moment longer before a big, fat smirk entered his face. 

“Guess I’ll never have to explain a one-night-stand to you again”, he laughed. 

“Nope.” She popped the ‘p’. “So, no naked man in her bed?” 

“Never without permission.” He grinned and licked his lips. “She stopped tidying up her apartment for me. Good? Or friend zone?” 

“Could be both.” Mipha shrugged. “But she thinks you’re hot, doesn’t she? As long as you keep that up, you should be safe.” 

“I guess?” He looked at the ridiculous portrait above his head and sighed. “She is _gorgeous_ , Mipha. The sex would only be the cherry on the cake.” 

“Of course, you would choose a food analogy.” Mipha rolled her eyes. “But you are dating, aren’t you?” 

“Kind of”, Link shrugged. “Nothing official, though.” 

“Then ask her out or something. Show her that you are interested in her like that. You will see, she’s the one who lies naked in your bed voluntarily in no time at all.” 

“I shouldn’t have called you”, he groaned. “Really, you are only allowed to watch the kids' channel from now on.” 

Mipha tapped her fingers on her lips and paused. Eyed him. 

“You are serious about her, aren’t you?” 

Link shrugged again, ‘What can I say?’ written all over his face. 

“Wow.” Mipha blinked. “I never thought I’d see the day Link Forester is head over heels in love.” 

_“Shut up,_ fish girl.” 

“That won’t make it less true, lover boy”, she chuckled. 

“Link?” 

He looked up, but Mipha frowned. 

“Link?” Again. 

“Oh! That’s Tetra!” Link leaped up and nearly dropped the phone “See you, Mipha!” 

“Talk to you soon!” 

Pushing Tetra’s bedroom door open, he saw her already sitting upright in her bed and rubbing her eyes. 

“Hey, are you ok?” 

“Daddy? I’m thirsty. Can I have water?” 

“Of course.” 

He smiled and gave her a cup of water he had prepared earlier. 

She had started to call him Daddy a few months ago and it still made his heart sing. They had been in the wild, a trip with just the two of them. He had shown her how to make baked apples over a campfire when she had started to ask questions. She had wanted to know if it was true that she had a Dad now. She never had one before after all – and if that meant, she had another Grandpa, too, if she could take toys to his place, if he would get her a birthday present, and so on. He had answered her questions patiently, some with an ache in his own heart, some with a genuine smile. When he returned her to Zelda and they stood in her kitchen for small talk, she told Zelda with a beaming smile, that she and Daddy had baked apples over a real fire, can you believe that, a real fire, Mommy? She seemed completely unaware of the nickname she had just used, but Link could only stare at her, heart thundering in his chest, unable to decide if he should laugh or cry. He had settled for both, a strange sob escaping his throat when Zelda squeezed his shoulder with a knowing smile. 

It was still a wonder to him. He appeared in her life from one moment to the other, knowing nothing about her besides her name, and not a year later, he was her daddy and that was that. 

“Link?” Tetra interrupted his string of thoughts before he could get too sentimental. 

“Hmhm? What’s up, Tetra? Can’t sleep?” Link asked, caressing her back lightly. 

“I miss Mommy”, she said quietly. 

“It’s the first time you go to sleep without her, don’t you? It’s ok to miss her, Tetra. I’m sure she misses you, too.” Link tried to soothe her. 

“Do you miss her, too, Daddy?”, Tetra asked with eyes wide open, “You kissed her today.” 

Link asked slightly alarmed, “I… what?” 

“Yes, you kissed her goodbye! Are you in love with Mommy, Link?” Tetra giggled in her small hands, meanwhile wide awake again. 

Link’s cheeks heated up. Was he that obvious? 

He knew that it was probably not a wise decision to discuss his love life with his four-year-old daughter, but one of the rules he had given himself as a father was that he would always answer her truthfully. 

“Uh, no? Are you not tired? We really should go to sleep now.” Well. So much for following his own rules. 

“No? Daddy, you told me, I mustn’t tell lies. And what about you?” Tetra glared at him and bristled at his little lie. 

“Ok, ok, yes, I’m in love with Zelda. But Tetra, we mustn’t tell her, ok? She must find out on her own someday. As a surprise, you know? It’s… a secret. Can you keep a secret for me?” Link tried to explain himself in words easy enough, that she could grasp the important things without overwhelming her. 

“Ok, it’s a secret then.” Tetra nodded with a severe expression on her childish face. 

Link smiled in the dimmed light of Tetra’s bedroom and something he explained her a few weeks ago came to his mind. 

“Do you remember, what I told you about the good and the bad secrets?” 

Tetra frowned but nodded slowly. “Hmhm, the bad secrets make me feel sick and I feel afraid when someone tells me it is a secret.” 

Link beamed with pride at her, “Yes, exactly. And what do you do with a bad secret?” 

Tetra answered quickly, eager to please him. “I tell them Mommy or you!” 

“Yes. Very good, Tetra. And the good ones?” 

“The good ones make me feel warm or like someone tickles me. I can keep them, right?” 

Link smiled again at her, “Yes, that’s it. I’m proud that you remember, Tetra”, he squeezed her hand. ”Can you tell me, if our secret is a good or a bad one?” 

“Hm… “, Tetra considered his question a short moment, tilting her head to the left and to the right, “It feels like these baked apples in my tummy, Link. So… it’s a good one!” She clapped her hands and nodded. Then, she made a gesture like locking her mouth with a key and pretended to throw it away. 

“You are smart like your Mommy, Tetra. Awesome!” Link said while ruffling her hair. 

“He”, she screeched, dunking away under his hands. 

“Time to sleep now, this time for real!” 


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everybody! One last quiet chapter, before we are picking speed up again tomorrow.   
> Thank you for all your lovely comments! It made me smile that you all enjoy Tetra so much. She'll have more lines in other chapters (and @hbthingy: Mipha, too! I'm glad you like my little character arc for her. :-) )

Back home, when Zelda tiptoed to Tetra’s room to look at her before she would go sleeping herself, she discovered not one, but two figures lying in the pirate-themed bed. Tetra’s small frame was snuggled against Link’s chest, her knees were pulled up on his stomach and her arm was wrapped around his neck, while Link had protectively put his arm around her. Zelda smiled at the sight when she made her way over to the white-red cover, which had dropped to the floor. 

If there wasn’t the risk that the flashlight would wake them up, she would have taken a picture of them. For Link. Just to show him how far he had come in the last year. Sometimes, it was too painful to stand by when he doubted himself again and so often, he shrugged her reassurance off. 

In the first weeks, she often caught him with a puzzled expression, as if he was still surprised to find himself in this situation. As determined as he had been on that day in the courtroom, with the pressure of the conflict gone, he had been overwhelmed with the aftermath. She could relate to that – she knew exactly how it was when life turned upside down and often enough, rebuilding was even more difficult than the war itself. 

Therefore, the decision to help him as much as she could was an easy one. Urbosa had called him stubborn while she preferred the term strong-willed, but in any case, he was  eager to learn, and she was surprised how well they clicked as parents. Perhaps it was due to his blank slate in this regard? He had never wasted a single thought about child-rearing, so he soaked up her ideas like a sponge. 

Yes, he was a little clumsy at first. Who wouldn’t, thrown in a situation like this? But he was always kind, warm and gentle with his daughter, he had absolutely nothing to worry about! Tetra had taken him into her heart from day one without hesitation, anyway. 

Over the last year, she had learned to see why he was so hard with himself. His career had always known just one direction – upwards. He was an experienced explorer with a well-established, justified reputation. Of course, it was difficult to start from zero, and he hadn’t had the opportunity to grow into his role like most other parents had. She soothed him over and over again, tried to explain to him that there didn’t exist _one_ way to be a perfect parent, but hundreds to be a good one. Kids didn’t need perfection, they needed real people with flaws and strengths who saw them with their heart. He was doing a great job, if only he could believe that himself! 

In his self-doubt, he failed to see how Tetra bloomed at his side. She had always been chatty but easily frightened. While Zelda herself was more the overcautious type, Link asked her often to try things she would never have considered on her own. Somehow, his calm and encouraging nature coaxed her into the wildest ideas. And that was good! He added shades and character traits to Tetra's life that she couldn't give her. 

How cheerful the two of them were when they came back from the wild, covered all over in grass and mud! They shared the love for being outside, for exploring and Tetra developed even a sense of curiosity that would match Link’s one day. It was heartwarming to see how they became fonder of each other day after day. 

To think how worried she was in court... Now, a year later, with him as her friend, it was easy to admit that she had completely underestimated the positive effect a second, reliable parent could have on Tetra. And if she was honest, she profited from him as well. It was good to have someone trustworthy in her life. Someone she could rely on. Someone without expectations of her behaving this way or that. Someone who was not only loyal to her due to an old friendship with her late mother like Urbosa. 

Of course, her concern about the holidays had been pointless, too. They had simply decided to spent Din’s Day together and it was the best holiday she had ever had. Link had cooked for them, and all in all, it had been a cozy, warm, and comfortable day with just the three of them. A fond smile spread on her face – against her zealous concern, everything had turned out wonderful. 

Her gaze lingered on Link’s handsome face, and she smirked about his messy hair that splayed out over the cushion. It never did what he wanted it to do, but he would rather chop his leg off than cut it short. He hated it when she ruffled his ponytail, but his hair was so soft and inviting that she failed to resist from time to time. One time, he even let her braid it in the same style as hers. And wasn’t that the sweetest thing? 

Not for the first time, Zelda wondered why a guy like him didn’t have a girlfriend. She couldn’t recall anymore, how often a waitress had left her telephone number on his tissue or his coffee mug when they were out for lunch. He never took another look at them. 

_Yet_. 

She knew that day would come eventually. Now that he had settled down, somewhere along the way would be a woman who was interesting enough for him. And then? The way, he happily hummed over a stew, how he read every wish in her eyes, or how his abilities as a good listener could melt the heart of every woman. He would place his jacket over the shoulders of his girlfriend when she shivered. Not over hers anymore. They would still be friends and that was fine. It would be the task of his girlfriend to put a ring on his finger to stop these advances. And that was fine. Totally fine. 

Zelda wrung the blanket in her hands. She should be happy to have him as her friend. After all, what had happened between them, their friendship was by no means a matter of course. He had had the whole world at his feet, but he still had chosen to be with his daughter. Tetra _and_ she should be happy. And they were. 

She smiled down at the two figures. No doubt – Link did them good. Listening to their silent breaths, she tucked them both in the cover. She brushed a strand of hair from Tetra’s forehead and glanced a last time over the silhouette of the loving embrace of father and daughter. 

Leaning back, she paused. Hesitated to stand up. Longed somehow. 

A quiet question wormed its way to her heart, for the first time in what must have been years. 

_ Would she ever have the luck to be truly beloved, too?  _


	25. Chapter 25

“You didn’t get laid.” Link stated, when Zelda entered the kitchen the next morning, still in her pajama shorts and a tank top. Tetra was sleeping soundly in her bed, perhaps she had been up late last night without Zelda and was now catching up. 

“Oh, how do you know?” She laughed easily, receiving a cappuccino from Link over her kitchen island. 

“I happen to know your sex hair, Zelda.” Link coughed laughingly into his fist. 

“Eh, it’s shorter now, it could look exactly like that, couldn’t it?” Zelda stood with one hand on her hips, the other hand lifting her bob in a mocking gesture. 

“Uh, Zelda? Sex hair was only a Euphemism for some more… impure signs.” He grinned broadly at her. Now, that was flirting! Her stomach did a little flip. 

“You are the only one who can put ‘sex hair’ and ‘Euphemism’ in a reasonable sentence, Link.” She grinned back. “But you are right, I didn’t get laid.” 

“Something else happened? You are extraordinarily cheerful this morning. Did Revali twist you around his finger? Eh, or wing? Do Ritos have fingers?” He scratched his neck. 

Why was he so nervous? 

“Oh, no, Revali was horrible. I was the only person in the bar with a wine glass, and he still brought me a beer.” Zelda shook her head and lifted her cappuccino. “You even remember that I prefer cappuccino in the morning. Thank you, by the way.” 

“And latte macchiato in the afternoon and espresso after dinner, for that matter.” 

“See? I admit, that I’m a bit complicated, but _you_ still manage to keep up. If Revali wants to date me, he should start with the small things.” 

Link’s gaze flashed to her face. “Oh, so he asked you out? What did you say?” He spoke quickly before he shook his head. “Sorry, I don’t want to pry.” 

“Link, are you all right? You are not yourself today.” Zelda raised her eyebrows at him. Perhaps Tetra had kept him up half of the night. 

“Revali… we talked some time, well, he talked most of the time, but his stories were so boring and full of bragging, that I remembered yours the whole time. Revali wasn’t very happy when he caught me thinking of you,” Zelda smirked. 

Link’s eyes were so wide, it was nearly comical. “Oh. So… are you telling me, you spend your night out thinking of _me_?”, he asked timidly. 

“Yeah. I really missed your company yesterday, Link.” Zelda shrugged. 

Now, something happened that Zelda had rarely seen before. His cheeks went red and the color spread even over his bare chest. _Link blushed_. He quickly turned around and busied himself with looking for something in her kitchen cabinet. 

“Oh. That’s… good.” He laughed into the cupboard. “I mean, I’m glad that you like my stories.” He finally found the pan, he was looking for and stood up. 

“Sweet Hylia, are you going to make pancakes for breakfast? I love your pancakes! Could my life get any better? A handsome, half-naked man is awaiting me in my kitchen and spoils me with my favorite coffee and pancakes. Must be dreaming.” 

“Nope, I’m real.” Link grinned, at ease again with their familiar teasing. “Would you like the maple syrup with your pancakes or do you prefer licking it from my belly-button?” 

“Ah, I’ll go for the pancakes today. Tetra will surely wake up every moment.” 

“Well, you know my number, if you ever change your mind, Zelda”, he winked at her and gave her three plates. 

“Do you care to explain, why you are half-naked? I mean besides your all-time goal to get me hot and flustered.” She laughed, stealing another glance at his perfectly trained body and trying not to think of maple syrup. 

“Yes, of course. Well, long story short, Tetra had a meltdown, used my shirt as a tissue and I’m too stupid to pack my things.” Link handed her three forks and three knives. “I washed it in the sink.” 

“Why don’t you leave some spare shirts here? Hylia knows you have enough stuff in that closet of yours.” Zelda proposed while sipping the rest of her cappuccino. 

“Hey, most of that ‘stuff’ is workwear. Would like to see you in Hebra with nothing more than a hood.” 

“You have an extra room just for your clothes in your apartment, Link”, Zelda deadpanned. “I’m sure you can go without two or three.” 

“If you don’t mind? I don’t want to try your patience.” 

“Are we talking about some shirts or your whole stuff?”, she rolled her eyes. 

“Shirts. _For now_. I’m not making any promises.“ He grinned and waggled his eyebrows at her. 

Zelda grinned back and felt a warmth spread from her stomach to every inch of her body, lifting the corner of her mouth even further. What a wonderful way to begin a day. With Link everything was so _easy_. 

But… he said something about a meltdown, didn’t he? 

“Why did Tetra get angry yesterday? Was it very difficult to handle for you?” 

Link flipped the pancakes and sighed. “Yes, it was very difficult at first. She, I don’t know, she got angry when I wanted to brush her teeth. I didn’t understand what was wrong and I grabbed her wrist and then… “, he pressed his eyes shut and took a deep breath, “she said I would _hurt_ her, Zelda. I released her immediately, of course, but still… “, he trailed off and looked in the distance. 

“And then? What happened then?”, she tried to keep her tone soft. 

“I tried different things. Waiting out didn’t work and at long last, I mirrored her emotions. That’s what you often do, don’t you? Then she finally came back, but she was really down, the poor girl, puffy eyes, hick-up and all. It took me twenty minutes to get through to her, Zelda.” He ruffled his hair as he was reliving his desperation from yesterday evening. “I’ll never get the hang of this father-thing. I swear, I never wanted to hurt her, and she needed me, but I couldn’t help her because I’m too stupid.” He rambled on. “And then, when she finally was on her way back to normal, I nearly laughed at her, because she looked so cute when she tried to stare me down.” He filled another portion with batter in the pan and covered his face with his hands. “I am the worst.” 

She went around the kitchen counter and offered her arms. “Hey, come here.” 

He accepted her hug and closed his arms around her waist, burying his cheek in her neck. Oh, goddess, she had forgotten that they were both half-naked. Skin. Warm, soft, tingling skin. She hadn’t felt so much skin on skin since – _well_. She stroked softly over his back because that’s what you have to do when you hug someone, wasn’t it? Blinking heavily, she tried to gather her thoughts for an answer. 

“Children are tough cookies; they can deal with a bit of trial and error. It’s not about never hurting them, either. Of course, we try to never hurt them on purpose, but sometimes it happens nonetheless. You showed Tetra something extremely important for her whole life yesterday.” 

If Link was irritated by her way too formal speech and how her voice went higher with every word she spoke, he didn’t show it. He just raised his head from her neck, so they were face to face now. Looked at her, eyes attentive and soft as ever. Nobody listened to her like he did, always absorbing her every word. 

“And what would that be?” 

Feeling his firm arms around her waist through the thin fabric of her tank top was way more pleasant as she would ever admit. Slowly, she released her breath. That they were a bit closer than face to face shouldn’t make her so dizzy. She had to pull herself together, it was just a hug. _Friends_.

“You hurt her, she said ‘stop’ and you released her, Link. You showed her that it is normal for others to stop hurting her when she expresses her pain. She will know that something is wrong when someone hurts her and doesn’t stop when she tells.” 

Her nose brushed his cheek and the words began to fail her. “E-everybody should learn that.” 

He huffed a little laugh, and she could smell his sweet pancake-breath on her lips. 

“If you put it like that… it sounds like a good thing.” 

Her hands on his back stopped, and while she originally had honorable intentions to release him, she did the opposite and pulled him in. His arms around her waist tightened in response, promising more warmth, more of something she wasn’t sure she could resist. 

“Thank you”, he breathed against her lips and all of a sudden, close was not close enough. “You never fail to make me feel better.” 

She tilted her head and when she whispered ‘You are welcome’, their lips brushed with every syllable. ‘Not close enough’ the tingling sensation on her lips susurrated as well as every joined inch of skin and before she could think twice, she – 

They – 

She needed a very long time to realize that the brassy sound of the fire alarm was the reason they jumped apart. 

The moment shattered. 

Link spun around with wide eyes and shoved cursing the pan from the heat. 

“Ah, sorry.” He coughed through the smoke. “Guess they are a case for the garbage now.” 

“Yeah. It... that...” Zelda shook her head and walked hesitantly over to the window to open it. Why was she so flustered and well, disappointed? It was just a hug between friends. They hugged all the time, no big deal. She leaned on the windowsill and inhaled the cold winter air. 

Just friends. And that was fine. Best friends, perhaps. 

“I think the smoke is gone now, Zelda. It’s a bit chilly.” Link mumbled behind her and the sound of him flipping another serve of pancakes tore her back in the kitchen. She must have missed how he had turned off the alarm. Reluctantly, she tapped over to the table. 

“Do you want to wake Tetra up for breakfast?” 

“No, no, let’s just start. She prefers them cold anyway.” She let herself fall on the kitchen chair and rubbed her arms, willing the fluster to go away. “It’s about time for spring if you ask me”, she started, her voice still awkward in her ears. 

Link took the place vis-à-vis her and offered her the plate with the pancakes. 

“Yeah. Although I’m lucky enough that I’m working for the exhibition now.” He piled four pancakes on his plate. “Can’t remember when I did so many overtime hours, but at least I don’t have to be outside in the cold.” 

They ate in silence and the sweet softness of the pancakes helped to find her balance again. 

“So, your night out was a success? You know you can ask me anytime to stay with Tetra.” Link gestured with his fork between them. “Hm, or we ask someone else and go out together next time? Just the two of us?”, he asked before chewing properly. 

“Oh, I’d love to!” Zelda laughed. “But we have to find someone for Tetra who is not from the Museum, or we’ll never hear the end of that.” She shook her head. “Urbosa called us lovebirds again. And Revali thought we were dating.” 

Link shoved the remaining pieces of the pancakes on his plate through the maple syrup. 

“Are we?”, he asked without looking up. 

She laughed again, a little too long and a little too high. Perhaps to convince Link. Perhaps to convince herself. 

“D-don’t be silly. That would be weird.” And that was fine. Totally fine. 

Link stared a moment longer at his plate before he stood up and set it down on the kitchen counter. 

“I’m going to look after my shirt.” 

Zelda frowned at his back when he left the kitchen. Stared at his plate. 

This was the first time since she knew him that he hadn’t had a second (or third) helping, and he hadn’t even eaten his first completely. 

Odd. 


	26. Chapter 26

Just in case Link had missed the eye roll seconds before, Revali shoved the lid of his laptop down and underlined his point with a theatrical wing gesture. 

“Geez, I need a break. If I have to look at your stupid face in this video projection a minute longer, I’m going to vomit. As if it wasn’t enough that you are right next to me.” 

Link closed his own and made a face at Revali. As much as the Rito got on his nerves on some days, today he was glad for the always lingering aggression between them. It was much easier to form his foul mood into snarky remarks than in a friendly face, and he knew, Revali was as far from taking anything personally as he was. 

“I’m so very sorry that I had the foresight to take a video of all the places we found the masks. We can switch to the snow head, I'm not in that one.” He raised his coffee mug. “More dishwater?” 

“You bet.” 

They made their way over to the coffee dispenser of the National Museum for the fifth or sixth time today. Urbosa had decided that Revali should assist him with the preparations for the exhibition since they had entered the few weeks in winter that were too cold to work on Vah Medoh even for a Rito. Revali was anything but pleased with his new post as Link’s right hand. In the last few days, they had begun to generate video projections for each mask to show the places where they had been hidden. The director of the National Museum wanted to try something new with this exhibition and as much as Link could relate to that, it meant a lot of work for them. He could hardly complain, it was the outcome of the project of his former team and himself that should be shown in this new light and it was good to see what they had achieved in the last years. It would be even better if he had his head clear for such profanities. 

“Hate to say it, but I don’t think we’ll make it on time today. _Again_.” Revali growled in his mug. “As if I had nothing better to do than spending my quitting time with you.” 

Despite his own moodiness, Link couldn’t resist a tease. 

“What, missing a date because of me?” 

Revali narrowed his eyes at him over his coffee. “You could at least pretend that you two haven’t made fun of me afterwards, bastard. If I had known that you were dating and even have a kid, I wouldn’t have... well. Never mind.” 

“We are not.” Link sighed and downed the rest of his beverage, burning his throat. Not that he cared. “And honestly, I’m in no position to make fun of you.” 

“You sure? She thought an awful long time over that statement.” 

Link’s stomach dropped again when he replayed their conversation from a few days ago in his mind for what must be the millionth time. ‘Don’t be silly. That would be weird.’ 

“Yeah, I am sure and we are not discussing this.” 

“I had no plans to discuss your wretched love life with you.” Revali snarled at him and opened his laptop again. “Ok, I think I can take another hour of your dumb face.” 

Link glanced at his phone and chewed his bottom lip. 

“Give me a minute, I have to make a call.” 

“Whatever.” 

She took off shortly after he had pushed the call button. 

“Hey, Zelda. I won’t make it in time to the kindergarten. Can you pick her up?” 

“Of course, don’t worry. Will you be here later? She... she misses you.” 

“I hope so. At least an hour or so. Perhaps I can go to the playground with her if it’s not too cold.” 

“Oh. So, no coffee in the kitchen today?” 

He gulped, but it was to no avail. He had to put space between them, no matter how much he longed for the exact opposite. 

“No coffee. I think I have more caffeine in my body than oxygen by now.” 

“Ok. What about Saturday? Business as usual?” 

Silence stretched for a beat too long. 

“I…, well, Revali…”, he was interrupted by the Rito in question with a rapid throat-slitting motion of his wing. “A-anyway, I'm busy this weekend.” 

“Oh. Well, ok. Of course. No... no problem. Until later then.” Her voice became hollow over the time she was speaking and he hold his phone away so that she wouldn't hear him taking a deep breath. 

“Ok, bye.” 

Revali stared at him when he shoved his phone into his jeans again and busied himself with the touchpad of his laptop, clicking everywhere and nowhere at the same time. 

“What was that? Keep me out of your domestic quarrel.” He crossed his wings. “If you have to pick up your girl, well. It’s not that you are of much help here anyway.” 

Link snorted at him. “What, you of all people? As if you would know anything about being a father.” 

“No”, Revali mumbled more to himself, “but I know how it sucks to be at the other side in this case.” 

Great. Now even Revali tried to make him feel guilty. Not that he needed an extra reminder. He tried to keep Tetra out, she had nothing to do with it. But it was difficult. How should he forget about his feelings for Zelda when they were hanging out the whole time? He had to get a grasp of every inch of space he could get, and they _had_ a lot of work to do. He wasn't exactly lying. At least for today. Saturday… was another problem.

God, he had known from the beginning that falling for her would end in another disaster. It was all her fault. Why had she to be so smart, warm and funny? She was gorgeous, inside and out, of course he went head over heels for her immediately. So many girls had tried to chain him to them and the one time, he was serious about a woman, she turned him down. The irony of the situation wasn't lost on him, but he couldn't find anything amusing about it. 

“My gosh, Link. You have been staring at this projection for the last five minutes now without moving a muscle.” Revali flipped a feathered finger at his forearm. “You sure you don’t want to talk?” 

“Yeah, I'm fine. Let’s do this, so we can both go home.” He nodded in the direction of the movie. 

Revali gave him a look. 

“You look like a Stalhinox. I won't ask a third time.” 

“My, such high praise from you, Revali.” 

There was nothing to talk about anyway. 

He had asked a question. 

She had given him an answer. 

End of discussion. 


	27. Chapter 27

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I added two tags for trigger warning purposes, so you might want to check. It's nothing serious, but I don't want to bring somebody in an uncomfortable situation.  
> If you have no issues with triggers, just go ahead and don't spoil yourself. 😁

The sign he passed announced ‘Zora’s Domain – 10 miles’, but Link knew the way by heart anyway. Countless times he had steered his bike up the steep path and deep down he knew that he was going much too fast for the stony, slippery surface. 

He didn’t care. 

All he cared about was to keep the adrenaline replacing the wrongness, the guilt, and the shame in his mind. 

Everything had been so horribly wrong, and he had known it the entire time. Why? Why had he done it anyway? Wrong, nothing but wrong. He should have stepped back when she pressed her body against his after the second drink instead of grabbing her waist and pulling her closer. He should have bidden her goodbye at her door instead of answering her hungry gaze with a hungry kiss. He should have gone home instead of triple checking the rubber and biting his tongue that he wouldn’t say Zelda instead of – goddesses, what was her name? Paya. Her name had been _Paya_. Even the normally soothing balm of his orgasm had been utterly wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. And now… 

He gripped the handlebar harder. Increased his speed. 

Perhaps Zelda was right and he was weird. They weren’t even dating, and he still managed to ruin everything. What did he think? Two weeks of distancing himself from her and a one-night-stand would cure him of the love of his life? She thought dating him would be weird before and now that he had betrayed her trust or her or them, whatever _them_ was... She would never want him. He hadn’t missed how hurt and confused she had looked when he skipped their second Saturday night date – _no, not a date_ – in a row, but what could he do? She had called him ‘silly’ because he dared to think about her that way. 

She would have kissed him if not for this cursed fire alarm! Maybe it had even been a kiss, he wasn’t sure where to draw the line and their lips _had_ been touching. Who knew, perhaps a kiss in her world did not have the same meaning as in his. Sure, kissing him was alright, but _dating_ him was weird. 

And now he proved her statement true by throwing himself at the next best woman only two weeks after she had rejected him. He was aware that he wasn’t ready to date someone else, why had he even tried? And well, a date and a polite ‘no, thank you’ would have been one thing, but sex? Casual sex as a coping mechanism, congratulation Link, you hit rock bottom. He loved Zelda, he didn’t want somebody else! Oh god, he was horrible. 

_Disgusting_. 

How could he let it come to this? 

The flashlights of an oncoming truck blinded him through the misty air, and he tried to slow down. Damn it, he should have known better to barrel on this treacherous road. Quashing the urge to pull hard on the front wheel brake, he tried to break in intervals, but it was to no avail. His grip on the slippery surface was too low and his speed too high to coax the bike into a safe halt. He wouldn’t stop in time, so he tore the handlebar to the right at the last moment to avoid at least a direct crash. Feeling the motorcycle under him leaving the ground, the last thing he saw was the flashlight of the truck before everything went black. 

It reminded him of the pulsating eye of a guardian. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to hide behind my keyboard now and wait for your comments. 🙈  
> And sorry Paya-Fans, I guess. 🙈🙈


	28. Chapter 28

“Mooooommy, how long is it until Daddy comes?” Tetra bounced up and down in front of Zelda, who smiled and took another look at the clock in the living room. 

“He must be here every moment. Five minutes perhaps.” She played with the tips of Tetra’s pigtails. “You know, he won’t be here faster if you ask every minute. Let’s decorate the cupcakes until they are all here, ok?” 

Tetra cheered and twirled in her forest green skirt. “Yeah, let’s do that! I want to make everything green because of Faro-… Fadoreres..., because the Hero’s color is green!” 

“Farore’s day is it, darling. I have green icing, you can try to form something.” 

Tetra clapped her hands. “I want to make a frog. A frohohog! Do you think Heroes like frogs?” 

“Oh, I don’t know. You have to ask Link, he knows more about the Heroes than me.” Zelda laughed easily. 

Tetra climbed her high chair and grabbed the tube with the green frosting which Zelda had already prepared for her. She squeezed a big blob on one cupcake, giggled, and squeezed two smaller drops on top. 

“Look, a frog! That one is for Daddy. I’ll make something else for you.” She picked up another cupcake and paused. “Mommy, are you born under the patron of Faro-o, too? Like Daddy and me?” 

“Farore. And no, my patron is Nayru.” 

“Oh, but then I need blue!” 

“We are celebrating Farore’s day today, it’s ok if it’s green. Look, we have everything else in green, too.” She pointed at the green napkins and at the green balloons they had decorated earlier. 

“Ooook. I’m gonna make a flower for you!” 

The bell interrupted her, and she jumped from her chair to rush to the door. 

“Link!” 

Zelda followed her and was greeted by Kass and two of his daughters, Notts and Kotts. She let the kids in who cheerfully hugged Tetra and chatted for a while with the friendly Rito. Tetra had taken a liking to the two girls in the kindergarten and every now and then they would visit each other, so she naturally wanted to invite them for today’s festivity, too. 

Kass waved her off when he turned for the stairs. “Give my kindest regards to Link, will you?” 

Obviously, Link was able to find friends everywhere, she chuckled to herself. Speaking of Link – where was he? She frowned at the kitchen clock when she fetched the cupcakes for the girls who had started singing a medley of nursery rhymes in Tetra’s room. Half-past three. That was odd, he was never late. Well, first time for everything, he would surely be here at any moment. 

After the girls had lost interest in the tin can alley game she had set up for them, they started to find out how many small figures would fit into Tetra’s big pirate ship and Zelda was left turning and tossing the little ball in her hands. Five o’clock. She decided to call him – it was completely out of character for him to miss a date with his daughter without warning. And a party that had been partly his idea most notably. 

He didn’t pick up. 

She tried again five minutes later. Nothing. 

The kids were playing hide-and-seek now, so she began to prepare dinner, her phone on the kitchen counter in case he would call back. 

He didn’t. 

She struggled with the pumpkin stew he had promised Tetra and the outcome was not nearly as delicious as his would have been, but that was the least of her worries. Where was he? Why didn’t he answer his phone? He had been a little odd lately, now that she thought about it. When she asked him about it, he reassured her that he was exhausted from the overtime hours he had been working for weeks. He _had_ looked a little worn and tired, but who wouldn’t? After he returned home from them, she knew he took care of his blog even if it was late in the evening. She had tried to talk him out of that, but he insisted that it was important to show every part of their work and not only the funny videos. Since the scholars were indeed part of the hardly acknowledged background work, she couldn't argue with that. In the end, it was his decision anyway. She wouldn’t dare to tell him what to do. 

She had been busy herself preparing the samples for the showcases, and they had taken shifts to take care of Tetra and get the work done, but he had always called her when the miss of one of his appointments was imminent, no matter how stressed he had been. All the same, he had promised that he would have more time once the exhibition had opened and the winter holidays would start – and that was now. 

Amali, the mother of the two girls picked them up at seven o’clock, their cheeks bright red from chasing through the apartment. At least the girls had their fun. Tetra had issues holding her eyes open, so they started her bedtime routine a bit early. Link still didn’t pick up or called back between brushing Tetra’s teeth and reading the bedtime story. For the first time since Tetra’s birth, she took her phone with her while she put Tetra to bed. She couldn’t ignore the uneasy feeling in her stomach anymore – something was amiss. 

“Mommy?” Tetra rubbed her eyes and snuggled in her pillow. “Where’s Daddy? You said he would be here in a moment but I think I’ve waited long enough now, haven’t I?” 

Zelda pressed her eyes shut and swallowed. “Yes, you were very patient, darling. I think he had to work longer than we hoped and couldn’t make it to your party.” Her stomach revolted. Lying to her daughter was a clear no-go, but she didn’t know the truth and one worried member of the family was more than enough for now. 

“But”, Tetra mumbled, “I wasn’t in the kindergarten today. He only works when...” Her words trailed off – she had fallen asleep. 

“I know, Tetra, I know,” Zelda whispered. “What happened, Link?” 


	29. Chapter 29

Wet, everything was so wet. And red. 

Link tried to focus, but his eyelids only wavered before they fell shut again. Splash! More wetness. His eyes obeyed him this time and it got easier to fight against the weight of his lashes. The redness… it wasn’t everywhere. Just… that was a face. And red hair. 

“… eeeh, there you are, little voe!” 

Oh, he had ears, too. Cool. 

“Come on, sit up, sweetheart! Can you move?” 

The face dragged him up and leaned his back against something solid. He wiggled his toes. Curled his fingers. Ok, that was working. Spine ok. Good. He wasn’t sure, where exactly the limits of Mipha’s healing power were, and he was not determined to find out. Blinking again and again, he tried to make sense of his situation. 

“I… what happened?”, he croaked. 

“Uh, you can speak! That’s great!” Her voice was unpleasantly high-pitched, but perhaps it was only the noise in his head that made it so. “I found a handsome, needy voe on the street! Just how we practiced in the ‘Voe and You’ class!” 

What the…? He tried to leap to his feet, but his knees gave out under him, and he sank back on the ground. 

“I’m going to help you and then we fall in love!” 

“No!”, he hissed. Please, not another one. 

“Na, I’m joking. I’ll just drag you in my truck and bring you back to my home.” She laughed very loud. “Are you ok? I’m Risa, by the way.” 

He mentally checked himself for injuries. His body felt raw, somehow, but besides this general soreness, nothing in particular stood out. 

“Think so. What happened?” 

Risa shrugged. “Well, you were coming toward me too fast and then you performed a stunt. Good thing you did, that was a close call, that was. Would have hit you otherwise.” She offered him a hand and he accepted it reluctantly. “Can you stand?” 

He could. His head was heavy, and he was dizzy, but otherwise, he seemed to be surprisingly uninjured. There was a sharp pain in his right leg, and he was sure that an immense bruise was currently forming on his forearm, but if he only could get to Mipha, he would be ok. 

Aye. 

Maybe one of his ribs was broken. Or two. Raising his hands from his legs, he struggled with the stars behind his eyelids and leaned against the tree again. 

“Easy there, little voe!” Risa patted his shoulder. “You can’t drive like that. I’ll put the bike on my truck and then I’ll bring you to the hospital in Zora’s Domain. That’s five minutes from here. Should be faster than the ambulance.” 

Link stared at her and blinked slowly. Hadn’t she just said, she wanted to kidnap him? 

“Come on, now!” She had already lifted his motorcycle on the loading space of the truck and busied herself with securing it with belts. 

Hobbling over to the co-driver’s seat, he gave in. Of course, she was joking. He had been to Gerudo Town himself. The ‘Voe and You’ class was a funny coming of age ceremony, a cultural thing, just like the veil everybody was asked to wear. Nonetheless, he was relieved when she turned the truck onto the narrow road and headed in the direction of his destination. 

Mipha awaited him in front of the doors of the hospital. He had texted her from the truck and was lucky enough that her shift had ended anyway. A notification popped up and informed him that Zelda had called him. He muted the phone. There was no point in talking to her right now anyway.  


“Thank you…?”, Mipha's soft voice washed over his still lazy mind. 

“Risa”, his temporary companion answered. 

Mipha nodded. “Thank you, Risa. I'll take care of him from here. Thank you for getting out of your way for him.” They spoke like he wasn’t here. Perhaps he wasn’t. 

Risa snickered. “Ah, don’t worry. Good practice when I find my own voe someday. Good luck with that one, a bit reckless, isn't he?” 

Link was too weak to protest. Let her think what she wanted, he just wanted to sink in one of these water beds and complain about his suffering to Mipha. 

“That he is. Thank you again.” She turned towards him and grabbed his uninjured arm. “What were you thinking, you idiot? You know how treacherous this road is! I can't believe you!” She hissed. “You of all people should know better to risk your child to be an orphan!” 

His shoulders dropped two inches and the guilt joined the pain in his bones. 

“Sorry”, he muttered. 

Mipha scoffed. He didn't know she was able to. 

“Don’t apologize to me. Apologize to your family! What are you even doing here?!” 

She guided him slowly to the little inn, ignoring the cheerful greeting of the innkeeper. They didn’t need to answer questions, everybody knew him and Mipha. He climbed clumsily on the mattress, the wobbly surface of the water bed doing nothing to steady him. Every breath he took send a numb pain through his upper body.  


Mipha's gentle hands searched for scratches, bruises, and hidden injuries, the soft glow of her healing power standing in contrast to the still severe expression on her face. He shuddered when he felt his ribs return to their normal place. The last time, Mipha had healed a fracture for him must be nearly twenty years now. His dizziness lifted gradually and when she returned her hands to her lap, he began in quiet words. 

He told her how he had followed her advice and how they had nearly kissed. How Zelda rejected him only moments later. He explained that he avoided her to move on, the stressful exhibition playing in his hands. Mipha sat on the edge of his bed, nodding and sighing along with his words. 

“Ok, that’s not optimal. But you said it yourself, she just needs more time.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “Why are you here, Link?” 

“There's more…”, he admitted hesitantly. “Yesterday was the grand opening of the exhibition and I met a woman there… she was sweet and kind and well, I thought it was worth a shot since Zelda thinks it's weird to date me. We…”, he swallowed dryly. “we had breakfast in a Café this morning and ended up in her bed.” He covered his face in the crook of his elbow. “I wasn't even drunk. No excuses. I'm just a jerk, ruining everything in a twinkle of an eye.” 

Mipha eyed him with crossed arms, her expression hard. He didn’t think she had ever looked at him like that. 

“And now you think I'll heal your wounds and piece you back together like I always have. Well, I draw the line here. You have to clean up that mess by yourself.” 

Staring at her with hollow eyes, he tried to grasp her words. 

“I just needed someone to talk, ok?”, he snapped. “But you are letting me down.” 

“We could have talked over video chat, Link. No need to risk your life by racing a slippery road up a mountain. Again, _why are you here?”_

And with that, she stood up and left. For minutes, he stared at the door she had closed. 

He was here because she was the closest to a family he had. Because she always found the words he needed to hear. Because Zora's Domain was his fallback place. And now, she turned her back to him, too. Mipha, the kindest soul under the sun, the woman with the most understanding nature and the biggest heart of all the hearts  thought him repulsive. 

The cold glow of the luminous stones of the main hall dripped through the window of the guest room and his eyes burned.

‘I draw the line here.’

‘I won't ask a third time.’ 

‘Why are you here?’ 

‘You hurt me, Link.’ 

‘Don’t be silly. That would be weird.’ 

‘Go away!’ 

He was alone. Alone like he had always been. Like he would always be. What a ridiculous idea that had been to think he could have someone he could rely on. Someone who _cared_ about him in return. He had tried. Oh Hylia, had he tried. He had wanted to make it work, but with the first difficulty in sight, he had ruined everything. 

He had abandoned his daughter, reducing their contact to an absolute minimum in an attempt to avoid her mother. Why hadn’t he taken Revali’s offer to cover for him? In the end, he had not only avoided Zelda, but Tetra, too. Just like his father had abandoned him. 

A memory began to replay in front of his inner eye; Teenage Link, 15 or 16 perhaps, coming home in the middle of the night. His father who had returned from one of his missions after months, waiting for him in the living room when he didn’t find him in the house. Instead of a greeting, Link received a harsh slap in the face. He didn’t get the opportunity to explain that they had left the party long before midnight and that it had taken him an eternity to walk Malon and Ruta home. Should he let them go home alone at night? Nobody had ever cared when he got back home, anyway. 

Link wasn’t sure why this memory in particular stood out from the rest – it was neither the first nor the last time his father had beaten him. 

And now? He was just a chip off the old block. A shudder went over him and the wobbling of the stupid water bed made him sick. Or perhaps it wasn’t the bed, perhaps it was the fact that he had hurt Tetra. She seemed to have forgotten about it immediately, but he wasn’t so fast. He had tried to be a father to her. But in the end, she would have been better off without him. It was only a matter of time until Tetra understood that. Everybody else had already realized that he was a failure, or would shortly, so she would follow. 

He had managed to plunge everything into chaos by building up expectations he couldn’t fulfill, by falling in one-sided love with her mother and by ruining the base of everything that could have been with a meaningless one-night-stand. Even if Zelda would ever consider being with him, once she knew about this, she would pull back. She knew that his former relationships were never long. That it was always him who broke them up because he couldn’t stand it anymore. The book of his love life had stamped _casual_ all over the cover. Hell, he knew even Zelda from a one-night-stand! She would never believe him, when he told her he was serious about her. Actions were stronger than words. After all what she had been through, she would never take a risk when it came to her heart. 

Maybe Zelda would have kissed him. Maybe she really would have if nothing had interrupted them and then her answer would have been different. Sometimes we do things we didn’t realize that we wanted them until they happen. Things our mind denied us. Or perhaps she had just panicked at his question. Perhaps there would have been another occasion with no fire alarm if he hadn’t avoided her. But now, it was too late. 

Goosebumps showered his arms, and he didn't bother to fight the tears back. 

_ What had he done?  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just in case this isn't completely clear, this scene and the last scene take place nearly at the same time.  
> Link mutes his phone after Zelda's first call.
> 
> Oh, and I hope you all have a special place in your heart for Risa, the funny woman from the voe and you class. 😂


	30. Chapter 30

At half-past ten, Zelda asked herself, how many calls would be considered appropriate in a situation like this. As the mother of his child? Two, perhaps three or four. She had crossed that line long before dinner. As his friend? More. Much more. At least she hoped that when she developed a pattern. She tried one time per half hour, but she sometimes left 34 minutes in between or 27, so he wouldn’t notice she was ogling the clock. 

Between the calls, she emptied the dishwasher. Got rid of the used green tissues. Put the cupcake with the frog in the fridge that Link could eat it tomorrow. Shoved away the nausea that thought caused. Activated her screen at least every five minutes in case she had missed a sign from him somehow.

She had lost track of how often exactly she had called him and perhaps it was for the better. Embarrassment was an idea for later, right now she was simply incredibly worried. The last message from him was from the opening of the exhibition yesterday, some pictures of the artifacts Tetra had requested. Even if he had a massive hang-over, it was evening now and his phone had surely rung often enough to wake him up. Who would the police notify if he had an accident? Daruk? Mipha? She had thought about contacting them, but she had to call the hospital to speak with Mipha and she wasn’t ready to do that.

Yet.

One more time. The dial tone rang five, six times. 

Just pick up, you moron! 

Seven, eight. 

Please! 

Nine.

“Hey.” Link's voice was far away and strained.

She nearly fainted and sagged down on the kitchen chair.

“Link, for heaven’s sake! Where are you? What happened?”

He sniffed. “I… well.”

Oh, wow. She was taken aback, not sure what exactly she had expected when she would finally speak to him, but him crying was it not. She shuddered on her chair, the tension slowly leaving her body. They were both quiet and listened to the crackling sound of the line and his ragged breath.

“Link?”, she asked softly. “Are you ok? Have… have you been crying?”

“Maybe”, he breathed hardly audible. 

The sound of him so weak sent her in a rush of panic again. He had always saved her, not the other way around!

“Where are you? Oh, gods, I can't pick you up, Tetra is sleeping and I don’t have a car! Are you, are you somewhere safe?”

“Zora's Domain.”

She exhaled deeply. “Mipha?”

“She knows I'm here.”

“Ok, ok, that’s good. Sorry. I just need to calm down a bit. You got me worried when you didn’t show up to Tetra's party and didn’t answer my calls.”

He was silent and when he finally spoke, his voice nearly broke.

“Oh, fuck.”

She gulped. He had forgotten about the party.

“It’s ok. You'll make it up another time,” she tried to soothe him.

Again, he said nothing for an awfully long time.

“No. It is not ok”, he murmured finally.

“Link, what happened?” She tried, but it was difficult to keep the urgency out of her voice.

Another silence stretched.

“I've done something stupid.” Even quieter he added: “Very stupid.”

“Ok. That’s... ok. Everybody does something stupid every now and then.” She licked her lips. “How stupid? We-have-to-hide-a-corpse-stupid?” It was a lame attempt to brighten the mood, but the helplessness that had taken hold of her made her desperate. 

“We?”

“Of course. You know the places and I know how – we are a dream-team.”

He didn’t laugh. 

He said nothing.

She nearly asked if it was worse than finding out he had a child, but that seemed a very bad idea right now, so she only sighed. 

“Sorry. Just tell me what's up.”

When he still didn’t answer, her stomach dropped again. What was wrong?

“I-is this about us?”

“Us?”

Yes, you and me, you moron. 

“Tetra and me.”

“No. Not about Tetra.” He paused. “Well, yes. I can’t believe that I forgot about her party. I'm such a jerk.”

“You know that's not true, Link.”

“You don’t know what happened.”

“Then tell me, for heaven’s sake!” She regretted her harsh tone immediately because it silenced him again.

“Ok, then don’t. I'm ready when you are, ok? Call me anytime. _Anytime_ , Link.” She waited in vain for an answer.

“Or… we can talk when you are here. Whatever it is, we’ll fix it, ok? Do you… do you know when you will be back? Tetra will ask me tomorrow.”

“I’m not sure.”

A horrible, all-consuming fear seeped into her mind.

“You... you will come back, will you?”, she whispered.

“Of course”, he whispered back, but it came too slow and too strained to convince her.

His speaker rustled. “I have to go, Zel.”

And with that, the line was dead.

She lowered her phone. 

Zel. No one had ever called her _Zel_. Since she was a little girl, she had dreamed that somebody, anybody thought of a nickname for her. Her father wouldn't in his wildest dreams, of course, and all her friends never did. Nobody was close enough to do so or perhaps she was just too severe, too regal, too boring. No one, but Link. Now, when they were breaking up, he started to call her Zel.

Hugging herself, she laid her cheek on her knees and silent tears found their way in her leggings, but then she startled and her head shot up.

_Oh_.

They weren’t breaking up. Because... they weren’t dating, they were just friends. And that was fine. But why did it feel like a break-up? Why did it hurt that he wouldn't talk to her? That he was so torn apart that he had forgotten about them? About her perhaps? She looked at her trembling hands that had called his number so often today. Pressed her forearm in her nauseous stomach that had refused to eat but was full of rocks anyway. Closed her burning eyes who wouldn’t stop crying.

It was not fine.

She...

She was in love with him.

It felt like a break-up because it _was_ one. She had pushed the needs of her heart, the mere existence of her heart away, but that hadn’t hindered it to call out for Link. In her urgency to rely on her mind alone, she had barred her heart from love to save it from pain, but her heart hadn’t asked what she thought was best. Under the cover of the label ‘just friends’, it had clenched to every gentle gesture, to every of his caring character traits. 

She shouldn’t be so surprised – the glimpses of his character she had caught on that evening all these years ago had played a major role that she had ended up in his hotel bed. And what she had found in the last year was even better. Of course, had her broken, shattered heart inhaled him like he was the air to breathe.

Oh, she was so blind! If she hadn’t been so focused on denying, she had perhaps been able to see the signs. They had basically kissed two weeks ago! Well, they would have, if the pancakes hadn’t besmoked the whole kitchen. That hadn’t been a hug between friends. That had been an almost kiss!

Anyway, only the fire alarm had stopped them and that meant, _he had not pulled away_. Now that she thought about it, his tease crossed the just-friends-line steadily. How often in the last few weeks had he joked about moving in? About sweeping her off her feet? He had even teased her about having a second child together! She had always brushed it aside as just that, a tease, but perhaps he was offering her an opening? Perhaps...?

Her heart fluttered violently and flowed her with happily ever after pictures. Link, lying a hand on her rounded belly to feel his second child kicking, she, smiling at him in the kitchen of their first house, Tetra, slipping into their bed to cuddle with them on Sunday mornings.

Whoa, no! Stop it! 

Not so fast.

He had hardly been able to speak to her because he was so broken, he had forgotten about Tetra’s party and he had fled to Zora’s Domain, his – at least emotional – home. Something was wrong. Horribly wrong. She had never heard him so crushed. Whatever stupidity he had done, he had to overcome it, and she would be forced to wait for him to come around. That was... if he would come. 

The bubbles with happy images in her mind burst one after another.

If he came.

If.

She rushed her bedtime routine and sneaked into Tetra’s bed instead of her own. Tetra was warm in her arms and snuggled instinctive closer to her, but her daughter couldn’t fill the hole in her chest that was caused by the absence of someone else.


	31. Chapter 31

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again for all your comments!  
> Writing in general and posting this story in particular keeps me sane in this crazy pandemic times and your reactions are a highlight in my day.   
> I might not be able to post tomorrow - I'll go to the office for the first time in weeks and the last time I was too wiped out afterwards to do any brain activity. We will see. At least no extreme cliffhanger today, so you won't kill me. 😋

Link lifted the headpiece of the Zora armor from his head and put it on the stone next to him. Mipha and he had found the set forgotten in a chest somewhere in the depths of the storage rooms of Zora's Domain when they were younger. It had taken some time for him to grow into it, but now it fitted him like a second skin. They had asked around if anybody knew about the origin of the clothes, but when nobody claimed ownership, they allowed him to use it. The Zoras were much less fixated on items concerning their history than the Hylians – they preferred poems and monuments to remember their past over physical things. He had hesitated to use it at first, but it was useful when he trained with Mipha and allowed him to move nearly like a Zora in the water. It had accompanied him even in Termina, but he had stored it here when he came back last year as it wasn’t of much use in Castletown. 

The winter was less harsh in the Lanayru Great Spring, the air heavy with the always present moisture, be it from rain, mist, or fog. The armor kept him dry, the headpiece shielding even his hair against the water – some kind of old Zora magic probably. 

He shivered nonetheless. Coping didn’t go well. 

He had spent the entire morning swimming up the waterfalls and taking a header back down, hoping this old game would help him to put his mind at ease and to sort things out. His first tries had been clumsy. He hadn’t done this for years, and the lack of sleep, food, and peace didn’t help either. By midday, he finally had the hang of it again, but it didn’t give him the satisfaction he had looked for. Exhaustion, yes, but a clear head? 

The pebble he was throwing in an attempt to let it skip on the water entered the lake with a splash. Zelda had called him 15 times yesterday. 15 times! That had to mean something, hadn’t it? Another pebble, another splash. We are a dream-team. Splash. She wouldn’t bat an eye to cover up a murder for him, but _dating_ him would be weird. Splash, splash, splash. _Weird_. 

The next row of splashes was too loud for his pebbles. He tore his gaze to the cliff in time to see Mipha rising in the air, where she performed a twisting dive and landed five feet apart from him. They hadn’t spoken since yesterday, but she didn’t need to ask where he was, and he didn’t need to tell her. 

He smiled through his nausea at her in awe – all Zoras were able to dive up the waterfalls, but none of them possessed the grace Hylia had gifted his friend. 

“You’ve practiced a new move.” 

“Yes”, she smiled back. “I’m surprised that you are clear enough to notice. So, any conclusions?” 

“She phoned me.” He stroked his thumb over the smooth surface of the pebble in his hands. “Because I didn’t show up at Tetra’s party. She... she was worried.” 

Mipha slowly walked over to him and took the place at his side. 

“You still think that this is about Zelda, don’t you?” 

He looked up and glared at her. “Of course, this is about Zelda, what else?” 

She patted his back and sighed through her nose. 

“You think I’m cross with you because you hooked up with that girl, right? That’s not it. I just, well, I want to get you out of your comfort zone.” 

“Comfort zone”, he stated wryly. “Yeah, I’ve never been better.” 

For a long time, the only sound was the rustling of the scales of the armor, when Mipha stroked his back. After a while, his silent sniffs came along. Skies, he was getting soft – he hadn’t cried in an eternity and now two days in a row. 

“Link.” Mipha’s voice was so sweet that he nearly believed everything would go well at the end. “This is about you. Not about Zelda. That’s why I asked you why you are here. I wanted you to think about where you belong. And the answer is not Zora’s Domain.” 

She squeezed his shoulder and stood up. 

“Let me know when you need help.” 

One last, reassuring smile, and she jumped headfirst over the cliff again, leaving him alone. 

He balanced the little stone on the back of his hand. Why was he here? Zora's Domain had always been a second home for him, sometimes even his first. It was only natural to come here when he suffered. He had done so beforehand and Mipha had never given him such a telling-off. On the contrary, to be honest. Mipha was like a sister to him, had always been, and she was the closest to a family he had. 

The pebble slid from his hand and dropped to the ground with a thud. 

That – that wasn't true anymore. He had a family. Tetra. Last year, he had decided to sign up for the job as her father. 

He cringed at his choice of words. 

That was how he had looked at it, hadn’t he? A job. He had seen his fatherhood as a project because he knew how to handle that. Tackling a challenge – that was his strong point. But... perhaps that was wrong. Being a father wasn't an appointment, something he tried and if it didn’t work out, he would do something new. 

He couldn’t leave her, now that he had entered her life. And he wouldn’t. _That_ would truly mean abandoning her. She had grown accustomed to him. Maybe she even needed him. And wasn't that the reason he had decided to come back to Hyrule in the first place? Because he knew how it was to lack a parent? Because he didn’t want to do that voluntarily to his own child? He might be a sorry excuse for a father, but he would never let her down. He picked the stone up and swallowed. At least not in the long run, not after he had sorted this out. 

Maybe he had hurt her, but Zelda had said things like that could happen. That it mattered that he had stopped. And grabbing her wrist _was_ different to the things his father had done. He wasn’t one to sugarcoat reality, but taking a misstep didn’t mean he did _everything_ wrong. Perhaps he just ought to stop pretending to be a father and begin _being_ one. The father he wanted to be for her. The father he had wished to have. 

No overtime anymore when he had promised to pick Tetra up, no matter how easily Zelda had shrugged off his apology. It was unfair to shift the whole obligation on her, anyway. Maybe he should even refuse Urbosa's offer to take up the responsibility for the castle project. Such a huge project would go hand in hand with long hours. Hm. Perhaps he could ask Urbosa if he could split the task with someone? Revali would surely be up to that, and they had just proofed again that they could deliver together. 

He took a deep breath of the misty air and closed his eyes. His break down yesterday was probably a little over the top. ‘Whatever it is, we'll fix it.’ That… that was true, wasn’t it? Tetra was still so small, there was so much to do. He would not cop out when she needed him. 

And didn’t he need her, too? He had been at a loss so often this last year, forced to find new ways to think, to leave old patterns behind. So much he had learned from looking through her eyes, from feeling with her heart. So much had she helped him grow! This journey wasn’t over. 

Was… was it that what Mipha was talking about? That his place was at his daughter’s side? He enclosed the pebble in his hand. That didn’t sound wrong. His father never managed to build up a relationship with him, but he had a bond with Tetra. Maybe not comparable to Zelda, but they trusted each other. She had a special place in his heart, independent of the chaos with Zelda. He had achieved the goal he had set out last year, but now he was running away. 

Perhaps Zelda’s rejection had just been the trigger – the trigger that let his fear to bound himself to something outside his work shine through? Or… to someone? 

He looked over the clear water of Lulu’s Lake, his mind lingering on the satisfying feeling of pieces falling into place. 

But what about Zelda? What was her role in all this? Not a single day had passed in the last year that he hadn't thought of her and every time he did, his heartbeat had begun to quicken. She was the one for him, and perhaps he had even known it from the very beginning. But wasn't it a bit, well, _simplified_ , to see her as his love interest alone? Of course, if she really would never love him back, be it because she was too broken or because she simply didn’t see him like that or because he had ruined it, it would hurt. He pressed his eyes shut and tried to breathe through the uneasy feeling in his stomach. It would hurt _horribly_. 

But didn’t he care about her beyond that? They had spent Din’s Day together, and he hadn't thought once about how much he wanted to kiss her but about feeling _at home_. She had been so troubled yesterday on the phone. About him! How long had it been that someone _worried_ about him? Maybe they could fix his breach of trust and overcome it. Maybe not. But even if the door to a romantic relationship was closed, they had something left. Their relationship cut deeper than that. The term soulmate danced in his mind, but he wasn’t ready to name it yet. 

They were best friends. Best friends with a kid, so curious that may sound. And they... they had become a family, hadn’t they? This sense of belonging somewhere, that... that was family, wasn’t it? Beyond the enormous crush he had on Zelda, beyond the undeniable sexual tension between them - wasn't that more important than anything else? 

He wiped his eyes with his sleeve and smiled through the new wave of tears about the images in his mind. Zelda, knowing what he was about to say before he had even begun talking. Tetra bouncing up and down in front of him because she wanted to show him whatever discovery she had made. All the three of them hanging out on the sofa, each trying to stuff more cookies in their mouths than the others. 

A watery laugh escaped him. Gods, he missed them. 

He stood up, put the headpiece on again, and let the pebble fly over the water.  It skipped one, two, three, four times on the surface before it disappeared with a satisfied ‘flop’ – as if saying: ‘See? That wasn't so difficult after all.’ 


	32. Chapter 32

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everybody! I'm a little late, but I'm here!   
> (I aim to post a certain chapter on a certain date, and because of that I wanted to get this out today...)  
> So, enjoy. :-)

Zelda let go of Tetra’s hand to shake the snowflakes out of her scarf. This morning, it had begun to snow and it hadn't stopped ever since. When she was younger, she had always loved this weather – the large mansion of her father had been erected on a hill to give it a more impressive appearance, which meant that the backyard was the best sled run around. 

Snow in Castletown was much less fun. The snow slush under her boots made an unpleasant noise when she tried to avoid a slippery spot, and it was always just a matter of time until a passing car would splash the three of them with muddy ice water.

Tetra, of course, didn’t mind. She had been euphoric when she discovered that the reason for the bright light in her room was a solid blanket of snow outside. They had made it barely in time for the date with her father because she stopped at every fence to blow the snow off the pickets or to build a miniature snowman that she placed on every bench they passed. As always, it gave Zelda a deep joy to see her so cheerful, but today she couldn’t shake her worries about Link off. The fact that she hadn’t heard anything from him since their call occupied her mind more than enough, but now the concern about his safety added up to the mixture of longing sadness and utter hopelessness. 

As much as she wanted him to come back, she prayed to Hylia and the Holy Three that he hadn’t chosen today for his return trip. To say she hadn’t typed several messages would be a lie, but in the end, she hadn’t sent any of them. She still didn’t know why he was so wrought up, and she didn’t want to pressure him. Perhaps she would contact him when she stopped counting the time of his absence in hours and switched to days.

A firm hand grabbed her arm and pushed her to the side. She let out a startled gasp and realized that her father had just saved her from stepping in an icy puddle.

“Oh, thank you”, she offered and evened her hair out.

“You have your head in the clouds today”, Rhoam sighed. “Have you listened to me?”

“I apologize, father. I have a lot on my mind lately.”

“Is it about Urbosa who gives you these ideas about leading the lab? You know my opinion.”

And she didn’t want to hear it once again, thank you very much. Urbosa had indicated that she saw her next in the row for leading a lab, and she thought seriously about it. Link had encouraged her, promising vaguely that they would manage somehow and conveying to her that she had cut back long enough, but she wasn’t sure if it was one of these things, he hadn’t thought through. Not that it mattered, now that he had realized that he was better off without them.

She exhaled slowly. No, she needed to stop thinking about it like that. There was always the chance that the next moment would change everything.

Her father hadn’t wanted to hear anything about a new job. If she wouldn’t take up responsibilities in his company, she shouldn’t do so anywhere else. And if that wasn't enough, he hadn’t even tried to cover his irritation that she dared to think about it while working part-time – she had a child now and that meant she couldn’t do both without neglecting one of the tasks. It was a shame that she had to work at all, he had snarled in Link's direction. The thought that she _wanted_ to work didn’t occur to him, although he should know how staying at home in the first months with Tetra had driven her crazy. Sometimes she _did_ envy the stay-at-home-Moms from their kindergarten, but deep down she knew it wasn't for her. Thankfully, Link had silenced her father with nothing but a raised eyebrow, speaking more than words ever could.

“I was talking about the yearly dinner I am giving next weekend, Zelda. Zant will be there, too. He would make a good match for you.” He cleared his throat. “His ex-wife Midna is leading one of my subsidiaries. She never speaks ill about him. So, no risk of a scandal this time.”

“Father, you know I have no interest in dating.” She tried to shrug nonchalantly to cover her annoyance. “I will not attend. I always feel completely out of place and I cannot leave Tetra alone.”

“Ask her father – I am sure he would not mind.”

She swallowed the answer she was about to give and turned to look after Tetra. Rhoam had warmed up to Link over the last months, but she was not willing to risk that progress by admitting their freshest problems. 

They had reached her building and Tetra had discovered the flowers they planted every spring. She crouched in front of them, eying them this way and that, fascinated by the ice crystals on the now-dead flowers.

“Looks like your bees have to eat honey-ice-cream, Tetra.” Rhoam joked to get her attention.

Tetra turned and rolled her eyes at him.

“Grandpa, there are no bees in the winter. The baby-bees are sleeping in their nests until spring. Link and I have built them a bug hotel in the backyard.” She lifted her arms helplessly. “Daddy says it’s not perfect, but they can't live in the city otherwise.” She pointed her index finger in the air. “And they eat pollen and not honey.” Zelda smiled secretly from her place at the front door, but couldn’t bring herself to relive the lucky memory of that summer day. 

Link, Link, Link – he was everywhere and nowhere at the same time. Sometimes she caught herself being giddy like a schoolgirl about her first crush, dreaming of his fingertips, his lips on her skin, of holding hands and signing printed forms with his last name. More often, she was anxious. Every passing hour she heard nothing from him, added a new worry on the already sky-high tower of sorrows. 

“Of course.” Rhoam closed the gap and joined her on the stairs, whispering: “You ought to teach her better manners. You can’t let her get away with rolling her eyes at people.”

Zelda couldn’t suppress her grin, even if she wanted to. “Offended that she showed you up?”

“Come on, Tetra, Grandpa can see the bug hotel from the window of the living room. It's getting chilly.”

In the staircase, the wonderful smell of freshly cooked stew hit her nose – and it made her stomach uneasy once more. Her pitiable cooking skills did little to conceal Link’s absence and every meal served as a reminder of the domestic bliss they had shared in the last months, a reminder of what they had lost.

The lock of her apartment door snapped earlier open than she had expected, and she frowned. She had locked the door this morning, hadn’t she? 

Tetra pushed the door open and bolted into the kitchen, only to be lifted by a figure and twirled around. Zelda kicked her boots off, slipped out of her coat, and hurried over, leaving her father alone. The person who had her spare key was – 

Link. 

He was back.

He was here in her kitchen, cooking a pumpkin stew and hugging his daughter tight. Tetra squirmed giggling in his arms, but he was too engaged in the embrace that he would notice.

“I’m so sorry that I missed your party, Tetra.” His voice shook when he held her close.

Tetra poked his cheek. “Oh, it’s ok. I was sad at first, but Mommy told me that you were busy and would make it up another time.”

“Yes, that... Yeah.” He averted his gaze to Zelda and she couldn’t help but shudder at the vulnerability and openness in his eyes.

“Thank you”, he mouthed. 

“Can you let me down now? I want to look! You made everything green!”

Zelda looked around and an amazed gasp left her. The load taken off her mind had distracted her so much that she hadn’t noticed the green garlands that decorated the ceiling, the forest green balloons, and the pile of finger food ranging from sliced green paprika to buttered green apples. 

“There’s more in the living room. The guests are there, too, so you might want to go over. I invited Notts and Kotts again, so they don’t miss out on your second party.” He crouched down and tugged her sleeve. “But Tetra? Can I hug you once more? I really missed you.”

She facepalmed. “Daaaddy. You already hugged me for an hour or so.”

“Is that so?”, he chuckled and pressed her close once more, whispering in her hair. “I love you so much, Tetra.”

Zelda gaped at them, and she was sure that something inside her had melted - maybe it was her heart. 

Oh, Link… This… this was probably the first time he had told Tetra. And now that she thought about it... this might even be the first time that he had said these words to somebody _at all._ Oh… her eyes watered dangerously. Oh, wow. 

Letting Tetra go again, Link stood up and cleared his throat, offering Rhoam who had observed the whole scene, a handshake.

“Mr. Bosphoramus.”

Rhoam nodded and took his hand.

“Link. You can’t let her facepalm like this or you will never bring out the lady in her.”

Link raised his eyebrows. “Oh? Who said we want her to be anything else? Zelda and I think she’s perfect the way she is.”

Zelda beamed at him, although he couldn’t see her in his back, her heart bursting with pride. He was here and _he_ was perfect. Even if she had read it all wrong, and he wouldn’t love her back – he was here, and they would make it work somehow, whatever ‘it’ was in the end.

Rhoam frowned at him and rubbed his brow before he pushed off to the living room as well.

Zelda fidgeted with the seam of her sleeves. “You are back.”

Link turned and offered her a soft smile. “Yes. Since yesterday evening, but well.” He gestured at the decoration. _Of course,_ he had prioritized organizing a party for them over contacting her, but she couldn’t bring herself to be cross with him – not now that she had him back.

They stood like that, she staring at the skin under his eyes that looked like parchment, he rubbing the back of his neck until his skin must prick. Somehow, their reunion had been a lot less awkward in her daydreams. And _maybe_ it had contained a lot more kissing, too.

“Uhm”, he started. “May I hug you, too?”

“Always.”

She inhaled his wooden scent, the rest of the chill from outside fading away in his arms, and she curled her fists in his tunic. Just as she closed her eyes and tried to soak up the warmth and safety he was radiating, he asked quietly: “Are you mad?”

“Mad?”, she knitted her brows when she pulled back to look at him. “No. You got me incredibly worried, but mad? No.”

He took a loud breath through his nose. “You have every right to be. I stood you up and ran off.”

“You are back. That’s what counts to me.”

Hiding his head in her shoulder, he muttered: “I don’t deserve your kindness.”

“My decision”, she smiled and squeezed him. “Do you want to talk?”

“Yeah”, he nodded. “Very much. But not here and now.”

“Ok. As I said, it’s up to you.”

“Won’t be long, I promise. I need that off my chest. But now…” He withdrew and laid her collar in place before his expression turned into a mischievous grin. “I've got a surprise.”

“You are throwing a party in my apartment using my spare key?”

“Na, another one. Just for Tetra and you. I'll tell you this evening.”

She poked him in the chest, his laughter music in her ears.

“You can't dangle that in front of me!”

“Sure thing. You can’t threaten me, Miss Pacifist.” He snatched some green grapes from the pile of food next to him and popped one in her mouth. “And this chatterbox here will be busy with eating my delicious food she is so addicted to.”

She swallowed and rolled her eyes playfully. “I shouldn't have told you.”

“It’s glaring obviously, Zel.”

_Zel_. She should get rid of that idiotic grin on her face before they entered the living room.

Luckily, she was distracted by the beanie he was pulling out of his pocket. He put it on and walked backward to show her, waggling his head.

“Well?”

“Wait.” She looked him over. “Is that a Hero costume?”

“Yep.” Pointing at a coat hanger on the handle of her door, he added: “Yours is there. I didn’t go into your room, I swear.”

“Mine...? Wow, you took the cake! Does everybody have a costume?”

“Sure. You haven’t seen the living room yet”, he chuckled, “and yes, there is cake, too. So, get a move on!”

In her room, she took a moment before she changed into the female version of the hero costume. The Gerudo had recently discovered some pictures of a woman with the master sword strapped to her back and no matter how much the historians insisted that it might be a disguise, the National Museum had immediately stocked up their collection of costumes with female versions. If she had had a say in that, they hadn't needed an excuse like that. Couldn’t everybody be a hero, no matter the gender, size or age, or whatever? Well, better late than never.

She nestled with the tunic, cursing the lack of zippers and press-studs. This was so Link – everybody else would have brought her one of the fancy princess dresses from the Museum’s store or perhaps Nayru's dress, but not he. He didn’t need to ask, he just knew.

Finally, she had untangled her arms and refastened the ribbons at her cleavage. Securing the floppy hat on her braid with two bobby pins, she paused in front of the mirror on the backside of her wardrobe. A little more skin couldn’t hurt. She fingered with the ribbon to loosen the necklace again – hadn't she stored mascara somewhere here? Perhaps she should sneak into the bathroom to paint her lashes. And probably brush her teeth? What about lipstick? But he hated perfume, perhaps he wouldn’t appreciate that… Gods, she had never tried to get the attention of someone before, how did everybody do that without making a fool of themselves?

“Mommy?” Tetra's muffled voice came through the door.

She shoved the wardrobe door close.

“Coming!”

He would have to take her like she was.


	33. Chapter 33

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, did I get that right? You are all craving flirty zelink fluff? Here you go!

“Everybody is waiting!” Tetra dragged her into the living room, where indeed a large group of familiar people grinned and waved at her. “Look! Link and his friends made everything green! Even the food!” 

Zelda stopped in the doorway and gasped again. 

The ceiling of her living room was decorated with green garlands as well, crisscrossing from the window to the cupboard and all the way over to the door, bunches of balloons in the gaps. Her sofa was green, too, temporarily changed with a plaid, but the most outstanding thing was her dining table. Needlessly to state that the tablecloth was a shade of light forest-green. No, what impressed her was the amount of food that was piling up at the said table. She shouldn’t be so surprised as Link was as much a glutton as he was a chef, but still. The meat-skewers had some kind of marinade to give them a green touch, there were countless vegetables in different ways of preparation, salted and fried greens and if she had to guess, she would say that the things wrapped in herbs were some kind of fish. He had cheated here and there, the red of the carved hydromelon and the pink wildberries on the (Green?! How had he mastered that?) fruitcake standing out like a torch. 

Link was at her side in a beat. “Like it?” 

“It really gnawed at your conscience that you missed out.” 

“Maybe I went a bit over the top with the food”, he chuckled. “Come on, I want to introduce you to Miph-” He paused and scratched his neck. “Well. That worked out faster than I had expected.” 

Zelda turned her torso. The Zora, she knew from pictures and glimpses of video chats, was deeply engaged in a conversation with – _Revali?_

“You set them up?”, she asked and raised her hand to her neck. 

He shrugged and stole two wildberries from the cake plate, offering her one on his flat hand. 

“I wanted to introduce them because I thought she might be able to crack him open. There’s a kind heart under his ego, don’t you think?” He laughed. “But turned out they managed to find each other without me while I was busy hugging my family. So much the better.” 

“Didn’t know you were a matchmaker.” 

Mipha leaned in to whisper something in Revali’s ear and the Rito _blushed_. Wow. 

“Always have been. You know, I didn’t speak much the first twenty years of my life, always the quiet observer. Perhaps it’s that.” 

“But still, the matchmaker is the lonely wolf.” 

His expression shifted a little, and she regretted immediately calling him out like that. What had she been thinking? She wanted to draw his attention to her and _not_ by hurting him. 

He squeezed her shoulder, a soft smile on his face, and held her gaze. 

“Not anymore.” 

Her eyes went wide. What did that mean? Had... had he found somebody? Was it that what had pulled the rug out from under him? That he didn’t know how to balance his new girlfriend and his family? Perhaps the woman had children herself, and he had been worried about how everything would work out between them? If she would be a drama queen about somebody else in his life? 

“Zel? Are you ok?” His hand rubbed her upper arm and sent electric sparks through her body. 

“W-what? Yes, of course.” 

She totally needed to stop thinking about how kind and handsome and hot and perfect he was – at least until they would talk about everything. Her stomach dropped. And then she had probably to try to forget about it. Because that would work so well with him as her best friend. 

His fingers grazed her hairline and his thumb came to rest at the seam of her beanie. 

“You are so cute. The costume on you, I mean.” 

A blush bloomed on her cheeks and all of a sudden, she felt like a schoolgirl who had accidentally bumped into the prom king. He was flirting with her, wasn’t he? And he was a bit too touchy for someone with a girl-friend. What was the meaning of all this? 

Perhaps the battle wasn't over yet? 

“You look like a dashing Hero yourself”, she tried to grin through her wooly thoughts. 

His hand travelled over the side of her head back to her shoulder while he leaned in and his cheek brushed hers. Oh, yes, definitely touchy and flirty. 

“Well, well, dashing Hero is it now?” His voice was low and suggestive. “I'll add that to underwear model and chivalrous knight on the list.” 

She straightened her back. So, he tried to get her flustered? _Two_ could play this game. Perhaps she needed to be more obvious anyway. 

She curled her fists in his tunic, breathing softly in his ear before she spoke. The shiver rolling down his spine was nearly visible. _Good_. 

“Underwear model? No.” She pressed her lips at the tip of his ear and lowered her voice. “I thought you look like a _Sex God_.” The heat that his cheek suddenly radiated spurred her on, and she dragged him even closer. “And my assumption was very, _very_ correct.” 

When she pushed him away again and turned on her heel, hoping, she wouldn’t ruin her dramatic exit by tripping over her feet, she caught him gaping at her with an open mouth and a crimson flush on his face. She tried to walk over to Urbosa and Daruk as casually as she could manage, heart beating in her throat. 

Urbosa awaited her with an amused expression because _of course_ , she was able to split her love-is-in-the-air-radar between Mipha, Revali, and them. 

“What exactly did you say that he’s looking like an overripe wildberry?” 

Zelda coughed into her fist in her embarrassment. 

“That he is not only looking like a... Sex… God.” 

“Mighty forward”, muttered Daruk. 

Urbosa tried to cover her fit of laughter with the back of her hand. It didn’t go well. 

“So, you are not in denial anymore?” 

“Guess not...”, she sighed. “But I have reasons to believe that he has someone else.” 

Daruk and Urbosa exchanged glances. 

“How come?” 

“He just told me that he isn’t alone anymore”, she continued, the doubt from before overshadowing her momentarily triumph and making itself comfortable in her guts. 

“Well, as we Gerudo say - a bit of competition spices up everything!” 

“It’s a Goron saying. Because we are famous for our Goron spice. You know -”, Daruk began, but Urbosa waved him off. 

“Just kiss him already!” 

“It’s not that easy. I can’t mess that up.” 

“If I may”, Daruk interrupted, “I’ve never seen him caring about someone like he cares about you. He ditched every other girl after a few weeks or a couple of months at the latest.” 

Her heart sunk. Being another notch on his belt – that was not what she wanted. 

Oh. Well, she _was_ already a notch on his belt. 

“He’s kinda stuck with me.” She glanced at Tetra who tried to teach Sidon how to catch a ball. 

“Yes, maybe. But that doesn’t mean he has to drop everything every time he thinks you could need something.” 

“Thank you, Daruk. I appreciate your words”, she nodded, pleading he wouldn’t see that she had trouble believing him. 

Urbosa took her gesture as a hint to give her love advice she hadn’t asked for, and she already regretted having admitted her feelings. Fortunately, the conversation took another course, when Kass proposed to sing a few songs in the honor of Farore. Tetra sat on Link’s shoulders, both of them singing very loud and utterly wrong. Revali rolled his eyes at them, his singing voice surprisingly pleasant. Mipha didn’t take her eyes off him once. The other children giggled and laughed about Tetra’s and Link’s performance and began to sing as loud and wrong as they could as well, and soon everybody except Rhoam and Revali joined them. When the last song exploded in cheers, Zelda decided to finally give the food a try and met her father at the dining table. 

“Is it too noisy and turbulent for you?” She laid her hand on his shoulder. “It was a surprise party, I didn’t know they were all here.” 

“No, no, it is alright. I am just not used to so many children at once anymore.” He paused and winked at her. “And I knew for what I was signing up. Someone had to keep you out of the apartment.” 

Zelda tried to cough the pumpkin stew out of her throat. 

“Link asked _you_ to set us up?” 

Rhoam nodded, a small smile on his lips. 

“He was so determined about his task, I could not say no. And…”, his gaze traveled to his plate. ”It was good to be part of something to make Tetra and you happy for once.” He sighed and picked more food. “I was not aware that he is such a good cook. These are probably the best meat pies I have ever had, despite the dubious color. I am going to eat this in the kitchen if you agree.” 

“I can join you if you want, father”, she said, standing up already. 

“No, no. Please don't put yourself in any bother on my account. I need a break and it is your party.” 

He patted her head and went off to the kitchen, leaving her alone to her thoughts. 

And her thoughts were a mess. She half-heartedly missed her mantra, because it had always helped to cool her down, but she hadn't used it for months, and she wouldn't start now. It belonged to another, broken time in her life that was gone. A time without Link who would ask her father to be the diversion from a party preparation. The implications of that made her warm and fuzzy inside, but she tried to shove it aside as best as she could. Link had gone out of his way, but that didn’t have to mean anything. 

Sighing, she stood up and decided to look after the children. Playing with the kids should distract her for a while. 

Link was already there. Of course. The kids had swiped the hat from his head and had exchanged it against a plastic crown that was set over and over with pink plastic gems. The beanie was on Sidon's head, although it didn’t fit very well with his long head fin. Link had closed his eyes and let the kids patiently decorate him with jewelry and other things they had discovered in Tetra’s costume box. They had even clipped amber earrings over his blue ones. Zelda grinned to herself while dropping on one knee and taking his hand cautiously in hers. She pressed a lingering kiss on the back of his hand. 

His eyes flew open. 

“Your Highness. I see you were promoted to Prince Charming.” 

He laughed and the crown slipped dangerously close to his forehead. 

Raising his hand to his collarbone, he proclaimed: 

“Oh, Heroine, I feared you would not make it in time. My council forces me to choose a bride, my love. But if you don’t find it into you to live with me as a Princess, I will abdicate the throne in favor of my daughter without hesitation.” 

She blinked and tried not to think about that he had just called her ‘my love’. 

It was a game. 

“You would do that for your love, oh noble-hearted Prince?” 

He squeezed her hand and locked eyes with her. She didn’t dare to blink. 

“I would do anything for you, Zelda.” 

Her heart hammered against her rib cage, loud, fast, and full of this foolish hope. She was sure he could feel her pulse drumming where their hands were joint. 

Tetra whispered something in Sidon’s ear and waved the two Rito girls to follow them. Snickering, they left the room, and suddenly, she was alone with Link. And they were still holding hands. 

His gaze traveled back from the door to her face, to her lips, but before she could do something stupid, he remembered where her eyes were. 

“About that surprise”, he began. 

“Yes?”, she pushed herself up, the urge to kiss him momentarily forgotten. 

“You said it would be time for spring.” 

Sighing, she interlaced their fingers, hoping she let the gesture appear casual enough. “It is.” 

“It’s always summer in Lurelin. You have never seen the ocean, have you?”, he whispered. “I reserved a small beach house for us, the tickets for the train are on your fridge.” 

“Link, I...” 

“Don’t worry, it has three bedrooms. This is none of these cheap ‘there-is-only-one-bed-tricks'.” 

“No, that’s not it.” _At all_. “It’s just that I cleared my account this month and the bank won’t give me overdraft again. I’m finally free of debt, but, well, I’m broke.” 

“Zelda. I’ve got a bonus for all these overtime hours I’ve been working. I couldn’t have done that without you having my back. It’s only fair to share.” He stroked his thumb over her hand and she forgot to breathe. “I understand if you are uncomfortable with the idea of a vacation with me and it is just an offer. You can say no. I swear, I won’t be mad.” 

She sighed in defeat. 

“If you insist, we can take turns once you lead the lab, ok?” 

Had… had he just proposed to go on vacation regularly with her? No, she must have misheard him. 

“I think about it.” 

“I’ll meet you at the station in Lurelin. I’m going to prepare a few things, so I will be already there tomorrow morning.” 

Happy giggles and an enormous soundscape announced the return of the children. 

“Did you tell Tetra already?” 

He shook his head, the ridiculous crown still in place. “No, that’s up to you. You can hardly say no when she’s already excited for the beach.” 

“That was very thoughtful of you.” 

“Well”, he grinned. “Even I have my bright moments.” 

She dragged him closer so that she could tickle the mirth out of him, but he caught her by surprise and trapped her in his arms, pulling her close to do the same to her. When the procession of children, Tetra at the front with a plate in her hands, stopped in front of them, she had ended up sitting on his lap, and he had wrapped both arms around her waist. 

“Oh,” Tetra stated. They untangled themselves quietly from each other, and she slipped off his leg. 

“Did you tell her?” 

Link’s eyes snapped to Tetra, and he hissed: “No!” 

Zelda looked from one to the other. What the...? She had never heard Link speak like that to his daughter, but Tetra smiled, balanced the plate with one hand, and covered her mouth with the other. 

Link rearranged the crown on his head and cleared his throat. 

“So, what have you brought your Prince, dear Tetra?” 

“Oh, it is a frog-cake, my Prince!” 

Finally, Zelda took a look at the plate. It was the cupcake, Tetra had decorated on Saturday. 

“Tetra, Link can’t eat that. We baked the cupcakes on Friday and the frosting is from Saturday. I’m sorry, darling.” 

Tetra turned and shielded the plate with her body, probably afraid that she would take it from her. 

“But I made it for Daddy!” 

“Yes, I know, but – “ 

“I’ll eat it.” 

“No!” Zelda stared him down. “It’s a rock now and not a cake. A _rock_ , Link.” 

Link took the cupcake from his daughter, unimpressed. 

“Can’t be that bad.” 

Tetra beamed, when he took the first bite and Zelda couldn’t help but wonder why on earth her heart had decided that this dork was the one. 


	34. Chapter 34

Link brushed the strands of hair that stuck to his forehead aside. The first hour in a new environment was always the hardest. He was used to quick climatic changes - the unbearable hotness inside a volcano had burned in his eyes a few times, the harsh, icy wind of lofty mountains had let his teeth clatter and the muggy weather of Faron’s jungle had drained the energy from his bones more than once, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t need time to adjust. At least, he had been able to leave his bags at the luggage store at the reception of the beach house village and had changed into a pair of shorts and a tank top. 

He clicked his tongue, while he tried to figure out which of the huts in front of him might be the grocery store. Ouch. Maybe he had bitten the inside of his cheek a little too often yesterday – he should get rid of that habit. Or stop doing the things that forced him to have this vice in the first place, he rolled his eyes at himself. 

His intentions to organize the little party for Tetra and Zelda had been nothing but pure. He had wanted to treat them, make up for his failure although he knew nothing ever could. It had worked well enough; Tetra had found a new friend in Sidon and the smile that was plastered in her face the whole afternoon had been worth every minute of preparation. 

Unfortunately, Zelda’s refusal to be mad with him had made him careless. He had wanted to give her space, to allow her all the time she needed, to concentrate on the Platonic aspect of their relationship. A noble goal, and when Zelda’s smile, so full of fondness, relief, and something else he couldn’t pinpoint shone upon him like the sun, he had been determined to stick to his good intentions. 

Well. 

And then she had turned into a _vixen_ right in front of him and things got a _bit_ out of hand. 

He entered the next best hut only to find out that it was a gambling house. Muttering a ‘no, thank you’, he left and headed for the next store. Have you ever heard of signs, dear people of Lurelin? Perhaps it was some kind of pull strategy to force the tourists to go into every single hut. This one sold crabs, fishes and other seafood he wasn’t interested in, but they had brailers for kids, too. He looked through the items, tried to find one which was sturdy enough for the strength of a four-year-old kid. Tonight, he planned to cook a paella for them, and he was sure Tetra would enjoy fishing for the porgies and collecting the shells herself this afternoon. Since he was basically a half-Zora, he was able to catch fish with his bare hands, but he wasn’t sure if Tetra could pick up his skills fast enough. Therefore, the brailer. 

The fourth hut was finally the grocery store. To his pleasant surprise, the storekeeper offered him to pack the goat butter in a newspaper with an ice block to keep it fresh until he could store it in their fridge in the beach house. That wasn’t necessary for the rice and the salt; he would simply leave that in the luggage room when he picked Tetra and Zelda up. 

He took his time to select a basket full of fruits. The Lurelins had a nice tradition of lit up a bonfire every evening and the tourists were allowed to build a small campfire next to their beach house on their own. The older kids loved to chase over the beach, long sticks with burning ends serving them as torches. Tetra was too small to do that, she would be long in bed when they would light up their fire. It was the opportunity for him to finally talk to Zelda, and he hoped that sitting by the fire and roasting the fruits would be as half romantic as it was in his head. He grabbed the basket and the bag with his trophies tighter. If only the topic they had to talk about wasn’t so utterly unromantic. 

He still wasn’t sure how he should approach the elephant in the room. Should he confess his feelings? She probably wouldn’t understand why he felt that he had betrayed them by engaging in a one-night-stand (one-morning-stand?!) if she didn’t know about his love for her. But how should he make her clear that he would never pressure her? That she could take her time to decide if she would give them a try? He would wait years for her if he must. But once she knew about his feelings, everything would change between them. It was impossible to shrug a confession off – she would always ask herself if he was doing this or that to win her over. Casual flirting would be a no-go. She would know he meant it, and he would know she meant it not. How would he feel if she came around after one or five or ten years, would he be able to shake the feeling that he was her back-up? That she took pity on him? 

Pushing the door of the luggage room open, he secured the basket with his stuff. The apple on the top wandered into his pocket, but instead of turning for the door, he remained in the windowless, stuffy room for a moment. 

Not confessing was difficult. She would most likely not be able to grasp his problem, and if he was honest he wasn’t sure if he could stop himself. Yesterday, on the floor of Tetra's room, he had quasi already said that he loved her. Not in these words, but close. He would slip anyway former or later. Or Tetra. Or Mipha. Or anybody else who had their suspicions. 

He kicked the swing door open again. Damn it! If he hadn't been so careless to forget about Tetra's party, she wouldn't have known about his trouble, and he could have pulled himself together. He wouldn’t even need to tell her about his misstep, they were not together after all, and he could do what he wanted. _In theory._ They could have gone on like before, and she wouldn't feel cornered by his feelings. 

But no, he had to make a big show of his breakdown, car crash and sobbing into the phone and all that. If he wouldn’t explain his odd behavior, he would risk the trust between them even more. She would think he wanted to keep her out, and she would feel as if he was pushing her away. No, it was better to tell her the truth and live with the consequences than damaging the trust between them by hiding stuff from her. He wouldn't back out of his own mistakes. It wasn’t her fault that he couldn’t keep it together around her. 

Well – that she generally took the shortcut into his heart was the very reason he had this problem in the first place, he thought, while he checked the clock in the lobby, but in this regard, he had long passed the point of no return. 

Two hours left – perhaps the fresh water of the ocean would knock some senses in him. 


	35. Chapter 35

Zelda stood in front of her wardrobe, checking her clothes one last time. Would she need a more formal dress? The summer dresses she owned had already found their way in her bag, but the few times she accompanied her father on a cruise on Lake Hylia, dinner had always been a fancy event – evening attire included. She had checked the Homepage of Lurelin and the village had left a casual impression on her. Would there even be some kind of dinner, or would they simply cook in the kitchen of the beach house? Gods, Link could have been a little more generous with information, surprise or not.

Clicking her tongue, she grabbed a dark green etui dress and a few skirts and blouses. The latter was easier to up or downgrade than a shiny cocktail dress.

Great, now she couldn’t close the bag anymore. Something had to disappear in the side bag. Something that wouldn't wrinkle. Ignoring the little rush of heat on her cheeks, she pulled out several sets of lingerie.

After the break-up of her marriage, she bought a few pieces in an attempt to take better care of herself. Every time she needed to do something for herself, she would pick a new set from her favorite store close to her workplace. Perhaps it wasn’t the perfect coping mechanism, but one she could squeeze into her daily routine. She wore the sets on special occasions or when she needed a confidence boost. Her fingers played with the soft texture of the midnight-blue lace before she stashed it in the luggage again. She had never meant that somebody saw her wearing this, but… all was fair in love and war.

With a jerk, she closed the bag and stood up. She was getting ridiculous. And _desperate._

It was just a family vacation.

“Tetra? Are you ready?”, she shouted in direction of the door, while pulling the bag after her.

Her daughter appeared in the doorway, her little ladybug rucksack on her back. She had even clipped the chest strap close. 

“Can you pull me to the station?” She tugged on a strap that was secured on her little suitcase. It was a gift from Link for her fourth birthday – he had somehow managed to find a ladybug-ride-on-suitcase with a matching bag pack. Tetra had spent the rest of the day cruising through the apartment with her new ladybug friend and only after three days, Zelda could persuade her to leave the suitcase in front of her bed and not inside.

“Oh, we are going by bus to the station, but I can pull you on the way to the bus and inside the station, ok?” She smiled at her daughter. “I hope I’ll manage with all the stuff we’ve got.”

“Sure, you do, Mommy.”

“Come on, I’ll just get the tickets and our lunch pack, and then we’re off. You should go to the restroom, Tetra, the toilets on the trains are always horrible.”

“But...”

“They are disgusting. Trust me.”

“Pfff... ooook.”

Zelda grabbed the pack from the fridge that she had packed yesterday with leftovers from the party. Luckily, they had the foresight to give the majority of the food away to their friends, it would have been a pity to waste so much delicious food only because they were leaving today for a vacation. 

“Did you wash your hands?”, she asked Tetra who had shown up at the door again.

She tutted. “Of course, Mommy. Are you ready now?”

“Yes, yes.”

Zelda took the vouchers and smiled at their names in Link’s neat handwriting. How much time did they have between the arrival of the bus and the departure of the train? Everything had been nothing than a rush since yesterday, she hadn’t even taken a look at the tickets and had relayed solely on Link’s information. She didn’t think she had ever been so ill-prepared for a vacation, but, she thought while her heart fluttered, nobody had ever surprised her like that either.

“Moooommy”, Tetra pressured. 

Zelda stared at the vouchers.

Except there were none.

There was a note and something that looked like a card – with an embossment of her family crest. No tickets.

What?

She turned everything over, again and again, but it was to no avail.

No tickets.

Collapsing on the chair, she read the card. It was an invitation to her father’s dinner next weekend.

“Can we go now? We’ll miss the bus.”

“Yes, yes, I mean, no. We might have a problem here. Let me read it, ok?”

Trembling, she opened the note. It was handwritten as well, but not from Link.

_ Dear Zelda, _

_ You should have told me that your holiday conflicts with my invitation! I know that you always hesitate to take my money, but it is no trouble to me. I rearranged everything, so you can accept my invitation without canceling your vacation. The new tickets should be in your mailbox in the following few days. Since you had no voucher for a hotel, I just booked a double-room for Tetra and you at the best hotel in Lurelin from next Monday on. You should perhaps cancel the one you reserved for this week yourself. I am looking forward to seeing you on Saturday. _

_ Yours faithfully, _

_ Rhoam _

Her heart sank in unison with her hands. That must be a bad joke. Her father had canceled her – their – trip with Link because of a cursed dinner party she had refused only hours before. She turned the papers again although she already knew the tickets for the train wouldn’t magically reappear.

“I think we missed the bus now”, murmured Tetra.

Zelda leaped to her feet, crumbling the note in her hands.

“I’m so done with this shit”, she hissed, ignoring Tetra’s wide eyes. 

“Ok, Tetra, Grandpa took our tickets for the train away on accident, but I will not let that stop us from our time with Daddy, ok? I’ll call Link and we figure something out.”

The only problem was that Link didn’t pick up. Why did this moron own a phone when he never answered calls anyway?

She tried the railway company next, spending ten minutes in several waiting loops only to find out that canceled tickets couldn’t be re-canceled. She needed to buy new tickets for the next train if she wanted to be transferred to the ticket center?

Well, they wouldn’t give her anything if she couldn’t pay. Link still didn’t pick up. Great. Why had she used _all_ of her year-end-bonus to repay her loan? Sure, being free from debt was nice and the right thing to do, but now she couldn’t effort tickets for the train.

Tetra had dropped herself on the chair next to her and looked nearly as miserable as Zelda felt.

“We are not going to the beach, are we?”, she asked quietly.

Zelda pulled her onto her lap and kissed the crown of her head.

“We will. We can’t take our bus ticket for the train and the new ones are quite expensive. I have to find a solution for that, and then we are off, ok?”

Tetra wrapped her arms around her neck and bumped their noses together. “Mommy? Is this an emergency?”

“Kind of?”, Zelda chuckled despite her moodiness.

“Ok.” Tetra hopped off her lap and vanished into her room. Zelda took the opportunity to leave a _very_ uncourteous message in the mailbox of her father. Twice. One was not nearly enough to still her anger. She would have gone for a third, but Tetra came back with a little ornate box. She used to have her plastic coins and diamonds in this box and Zelda couldn’t keep herself from smiling a sad smile at her efforts.

Tetra opened the lid.

“Daddy said it’s for emergencies only or when I'm grown up and all. Wait, there’s a letter for you. Can you read it aloud?”

Zelda snapped out of her reverie and took the note from her.

“What?”

_ Hey Zelda, _

_ In case you find this accidentally, please don’t freak out. I know you are not fond of the idea that I repay you the months of child support I missed out, but you won’t argue me out of that. It is your/Tetra’s money and I won’t keep it. _

_ There’s some cash in Tetra’s box and a credit card. If you want to use the credit card – the PIN is the date that changed our lives forever. _

_ Yours,  _

_ Link _

Zelda blinked her tears away, clutching the note tight to her chest. Although they had found a solution for child support on his insistence long ago, he had never again mentioned the months he had ‘missed’ because he simply hadn't known that he had a child in the first place. To think that she was convinced she had won that little battle of willpower.

“What does that mean, that changed our lives forever, Mommy?” 

“That means the day, well.” She blushed and searched for words. “The day Link and I met and you decided to come to us.”

“Oh. Ok. And is it an emergency now?”

Zelda hugged her tight and breathed her sweet scent in. She would repay Tetra the money next month, for now, it was better invested in tickets to the ocean.

“Not anymore, thanks to you.”

And thanks to a certain stubborn Hero.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you all saw the big, fat opportunity for a major cliffhanger in the middle of this chapter and appreciate that I turned it down. 😂


	36. Chapter 36

The little door-bell rang when Link entered the flower shop at the station and the sweet, humid air hit him like a wall. The shop-owner was nowhere to be seen, but he was mainly here to let the time pass anyway. He had trouble placing his steps – every inch of the store seemed to be stuffed with flowers. His gaze traveled over Roses, Lilies, and Tulips in every imaginable color. On a little pedestal, he even discovered a single ‘silent princess'. Well, he would surely not buy her that one. Leaning forward, he tried to decipher the hand-written price tag. 50 rupees for _one_? That must be a joke.

“Oh, have you set your eyes on this little treasure, Sir?”, a voice from behind startled him. “But I must warn you, it is nothing you should choose with levity.”

He frowned at her name tag. Magda.

“And why is that?”

“It is a very special flower. It’s said to have magical abilities and that it was the favorite flower of the last Princess.” Ah, yes, the one with the super dangerous ‘shiekah slate’.

“It's the kind of flower you choose for a proposal. Or when you messed up big time.” She raised both eyebrows and pointed her finger at him. “It’s the latter, I guess?”

What? No! Well. Yes. But that was nothing he planned to fix with a bouquet.

“Uhm… I'm just browsing, thank you”, he muttered and brushed over a deep red rose.

“DON’T touch the flowers!”, she balked at him.

“Whoa, sorry. Didn’t know they were holy, too.”

“They are screaming out in pain!”

If he wanted to keep his head, he better kept to himself that that was probably because _she_ had cut the stems. He nodded and aimed for the door.

“Are you not going to buy anything? Oh, your girlfriend won’t be very lucky about it. And the rent for this store won't pay itself either!”, she called after him.

“I just remembered that she hates cut flowers”, he offered while he slipped through the door. 

_Girlfriend_. If only they were already this far.

“I have potted flowers, too!”, he heard her through the door, but wild horses couldn’t drag him into this store again. He shuddered when the fresh breeze that blew in the station tingled on his skin. A look at the station clock confirmed that it was at least time to go to the track now.

The train arrived and his pulse quickened. Would she accept his explanation, his apology for his odd behavior? Would she be disgusted? And how would they go on from that? Would there be a chance that she saw him as he saw her? She had been… _bold_ yesterday, did that mean anything?

People poured out of the doors, families, elderly couples, and even a few business people. He resisted the urge to climb on a nearby bench and stood on his tiptoes instead. Cursed shortness. Two teens chased the stairs up beside him hand in hand and one after another, the people moseyed in the direction of the exit.

The doors made a beeping sound and closed with a smack. His pulse was in his ears now, and he scanned the track again.

What?

Oh, no. She hadn't given him a clear yes. She had said she would _think_ about his invitation.

But… she had given out doggy bags to their friends. They had realized a little belated that they couldn’t eat all the food and her father, Revali and Kass had left without a pack. But after that, she had told everybody that they should take some food because she would go on vacation tomorrow. 

He cowered on the bench, watching the cleaning workers enter the wagons with their carts. Had… had she changed her mind? Perhaps he had overdone it. Perhaps a surprise party and a surprise vacation were simply over the top. She hated being patronized – and he had booked a week in Lurelin without asking her, at his cost nonetheless. 

The idea had been perfect in his head! She had worked so hard, they both had in the last few months. He couldn’t have done it without her, because she picked Tetra up from kindergarten when he couldn't make it in time. They were in this together, after all. He just wanted to share what they should have both gotten. He had yet to tell her that he planned to increase his part of the care work when she would take up the responsibilities in the lab should it be necessary, but was it so wrong to thank her now? He laid his chin on his knees and ogled the empty train. Perhaps he hadn't been able to get his point across. Or she had decided overnight that a whole week with him in a beach house would be _weird_ , own bedroom or not.

The destination board flickered and revealed the next destination of the train.

Kakariko.

Perhaps he should just hop on and thank Impa again for her help with his little Ganondorf-Coup.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybe you have noticed that I updated the chapter numbers - four chapters and the epilogue to go. I'm a little sad that the story is almost finished because seeing your reactions and interacting with you all was a lot of fun.  
> I have an implied smut scene I could write out to add another chapter, but I'm not sure about that. There would be nearly no plot and it would probably take me a few days... so... hm.


	37. Chapter 37

Zelda clutched Tetra’s hand a little tighter, so she wouldn’t fall when the train finally arrived in Lurelin. They had been standing next to the doors for ten minutes because Tetra couldn’t sit still anymore and Zelda had enough of the stares of the fellow passengers. Tetra had been very patient and calm, listening to the books Zelda had quietly read her, doodling and even looking out of the window for a long time, but she was a four-year-old-kid! 

She shook herself. Now was not the time to get engaged in an inner debate about child-unfriendliness. She tried to peer through the small windows of the doors, but the train was still moving and the other passengers blocked her view anyway. 

Please, let Link still be there! She hadn’t reached him the whole journey, and she wasn’t sure if he had gotten her mailbox message. If he hadn’t… well. He simply _must_ have gotten it.

Finally, the doors opened, and they were able to get off the train at last. 

“Do you see him already?”, she asked Tetra while she struggled with their luggage.

“Hm… yes!” Tetra pointed somewhere and waved so fast as if she wanted to fly away. “He’s over there! Link!”

Zelda gave the strap of the ladybug suitcase a sharp tug so that it rolled towards her. She grabbed it and bumped right into Link who had planned to do the same. 

“Oh. Hi. Sorry.”

“You are here.”

Zelda handed him the suitcase. Tetra pulled on his arm, and he put it down for her, so she could hop on, dangling her feet on each site.

“Yes, didn’t you get my message?”

His face relaxed. 

“No. Phone is dead. The charger is in my pack somewhere.”

Zelda blinked at him, looking around in the little station. A flower shop was the only distraction, it didn’t even have a bookstore.

“You just waited two hours at the station without a sign from us?”

He scratched his neck.

“When you say it like that, it sounds rather idiotic. I don’t know, I wasn’t sure if you perhaps had changed your mind, but… well, I’m here, ok?”

She hugged him so fast that he hadn’t the chance to hug her back.

“If anything, you are an idiot to believe we wouldn’t come, Link.”

“Oh.”

He gestured towards their luggage and smirked. 

“Can I take your bag or are you cross with me when I do it because you are perfectly capable to do it yourself?”

She couldn’t help but laugh at this awful tease.

“Someone's struggling with how to be a gentleman in the 21st century?”

He stuck his tongue out. 

“You are making this difficult. I would have been perfectly content with taking your stuff to the beach house, but you must be so horrible progressive.” He scoffed. “Next, you’ll tell me I have to do the laundry myself.”

She giggled while she began to pull Tetra towards the elevator and Link took her bag. Gods, was she in love with this man.

“Perhaps you should read Master Kogha’s ‘How to be manly in modern times’. I’m sure it’s not a bestseller for nothing.”

“Eeks, now you tell me I’m not manly enough. What a day.”

Her gaze traveled over his well-defined arms and his muscular shoulders that his black tank top failed to hide. She took her time to make sure he saw her looking. 

“I think I made myself clear in this regard yesterday.”

He choked on his spit and was suddenly very busy pressing the button for the elevator. She couldn’t help but grin at her boldness. This was going to be a week full of fun.

And if the following hours were any indication, it would be. The beach houses stood randomly spread over the beach, just like someone had taken a handful and had thrown them there off the cuff. Their own was the nearest to the ocean, perhaps 100 feet away from the breaking waves. Was there a better way to start a day than having sand under their feet first thing in the morning when they left the house?

They spent the afternoon at the beach. Link tried to teach Tetra how to catch fish with her bare hands and when she was too frustrated, they switched to a little brailer. The two of them were ridiculously proud of the two porgies they had caught at the end of the afternoon. Link showed them how to scale and gut the fish and although her scholarly mind admired the accuracy of the task, she didn’t think she would like to do it again anytime soon. She prepared the shells instead.

The paella they ate on the little veranda of their house was nothing less than perfect. Tetra refused to eat anything else than the rice (she had released the fish she had in her brailer right afterward), but Zelda was too lighthearted to explain to her that the fish sticks she loved at home were made from fish, too. When the evening sun began to dip in the ocean, and she clinked her glass of white wine with Link, she couldn’t remember when she had been so happy. If ever.

The mood dropped only when they heard her phone rang in the kitchen of the beach house with the ringtone she had chosen for her father. She didn’t go in to pick up. Instead, she told Link the reason for their belated arrival, and they both beamed at Tetra for her quick-wittedness. 

Tetra announced loudly that she wanted Zelda to put her to bed and the following day they should swap and Link should do it. When she returned to the kitchen, the sun had already set.

“Zel?” Link called from outside. “Could you bring the basket with the fruits with you?”

She chuckled. More food. Of course.

Descending the three steps from the porch into the sand, she nearly dropped the basket when she spotted Link. He had spread a blanket over a little mound of sand, the pillows from the porch piled up in a way that they formed an outdoor couch in sight of the sea. The whole scene was bathed in the orange glow of a small campfire, with just the right light that they could see each other.

“Oh, wow”, she muttered and set the basket down.

His smile was so soft that she nearly melted into a puddle right in front of him. 

“You wanted to see the ocean.”

Sitting down next to him, she looked at the horizon, listened to the soft murmuring of the waves, and admired the dark water sparkling in the moonlight. She took her time because she didn’t think she would be able to look back at the sea again once she would set her eyes on Link.

“Like it?”

“Yes”, she breathed. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many stars. Not even in the garden of the mansion.”

“Ah, it’s still too much light here. There’s a perfect spot for stargazing a mile from here, but”, he nodded in direction of her phone dangling around her neck, “that’s a little too far for the baby phone app, I guess. We can’t leave our little one alone in the house.”

“I’ll tell her that you called her little one”, she chuckled and took the skewer with fruits from Link.

He sighed and plunged his own in the sand over the fire.

“I can’t believe how she’s growing up so quickly. She can write her name now! It must be even harder for you since you know her since she was…”, he gestured with his hands to indicate the size of a baby but couldn’t decide which was the right space between his hands.

She covered his hand with hers and he relaxed.

“18,5 inches. We are all rather short.” She squeezed. “I’m so sorry that you missed so much, Link. It’s one of the decisions in my life, I regret the most.”

He blinked at her rapidly and opened his mouth several times to say something but nothing came out.

“I… I don’t know what to say. I mean, I’m sorry, too. But I understand your reasons, and I'm happy about what… what we have now. Who knows if it had worked out this way five years ago?”

“You make me happy, too, Link.”

They both stiffened at the words she had just blurred out. Link looked at her and took a deep breath, twirling the skewer he had just taken slowly between his fingers. He seemed to ponder about something and again, he opened his mouth.

“Apple?”, he asked a little hoarsely and held the fruits in front of her.

She nodded and they munched the roasted fruits in silence. The sweet, juicy taste helped to calm her nerves again. Absently, her eyes followed a couple that walked on the path to the end of the village. They were not the only ones – she had noticed others before and all of them were couples.

“Is the spot you mentioned for star gazing up the mountain? There are lots of couples on their way.”

Link chuckled next to her, and they were sitting so close that she could feel it.

“No. The spot is very hidden, I don’t think many tourists know about it.”

Realization dawned on her.

“Oh. What… what was her name?”

Link choked on his apple when he broke into a peal of laughter.

“Re-vali”, he got out. After a while, he wiped his eyes dry, and they both tried to breathe normally again.

“Sorry. I just imagined Revali's reaction when you ask him after a romantic evening full of pointing out star constellations with me.” He laughed again. “We stumbled over the place accidentally during our first project for the Museum.”

“Perhaps he thought you wanted to hook him up and hates you because of that now.”

Link looked at her in surprise.

“He doesn’t hate me. I know, he talks a lot of weird stuff. Our friendship is a bit odd, I'll give you that. But he would never hesitate to bail me out.”

“Oh. That’s why you set him up with Mipha.”

“Would be good for them.”

“Hmhm.” She wanted to ask what it meant that he proposed star gazing with her, what would be good for _them_ , or why he was so close that his body heat constantly washed over her.

She didn’t. She didn’t, because she didn’t know how.

Another couple roamed toward the mountain and their intertwined fingers made her heart ache for the man by her side.

“So… what is there upon the mountain?”

“Hm? Oh, there is a little lake. It’s called lover’s point because it has the shape of a heart. They say you find true love when you visit it.”

“Oh.” Perhaps that was her opening. “Do you want to go? We could go by day if it’s too far for the baby phone.”

He frowned at her, and she could almost hear the gears turning in his head.

“No”, he said slowly, not averting his gaze from her. “It’s a terrible tourist trap, crowded and overpriced.” The space between them seemingly reduced itself with every word he spoke. “But… _you_ of all people would want to go? What about ‘true love is just a fairy tale'?” He swallowed, but it did little to keep his voice on its normal timbre. “Did something change your mind?”

“No”, she murmured, “not something. Someone.”

For a moment, everything stood still except the crackling of the fire and the distant murmurs of the ocean. And then, she pressed her lips to his. It was nothing more at first, a simple press of lips, but she was quick to slide her hands over his arms to his shoulders when she realized that he pressed back. His hands found her waist, and he pulled her half on his lap, her head tilting to the side, so they could deepen the kiss. Her reservation fell to pieces when his lips began to move against hers, soft and claiming at once, his fingertips pressing through the fabric of her summer dress in her waist. She parted her lips, eager to give him more, to ask for more herself, the thrill of finally, finally kissing him again rolling through her veins like thunder. He pressed more, both lips and fingers, perhaps craving her offer like she was addicted to his, but suddenly, he was next to her instead of under her, breathing heavily, and even in the dim light of the fire, she could see in his wide eyes that something was horribly wrong.

“Zelda, wait”, he panted, “I… we need to talk.”

Her body was too slow, still sending endorphins through every part of her being, while her mind froze in shock. Her hands quivered, and she could see by how his fingers shook when he wove them through his bangs that he was trembling, too. Grabbing a fistful of sand to calm herself, she watched how it ran through her fingers just like her happiness moments before, while he refused to look at her.

“Go on, then.” Her voice was colder than she had meant it to be.

His gaze bolted to her, and he reached for her arm. She pulled away.

“Zelda... I didn’t mean to…”, he trailed off when he saw the tears glittering in her eyes.

“You didn’t mean to what, kiss me back?”, she snapped.

He pressed his palms in his eyes, and she thought she heard him muttering ‘fuck’ in direction of his knees. Her heartbeat drummed in her ear like the seconds on a clock.

“For someone who wants to talk you are awful quiet.”

He nodded, and she was surprised to see that his eyes were wet, too.

“Yes. I'm sorry, Zelda. I didn’t mean to mess this up.”

“Well, you have.”

He inhaled soundly and exhaled with a shudder.

“It's not going to get better.”

“Can’t wait for it.”

The Palm fruit on her skewer caught fire, and they both watched how the flames licked their way through the fruit until it dropped into the embers below. Sparks flew when he began to talk.

“Zelda, you know, I care about you.” Whispering, he added: “At least I hope you know that.”

She nodded barely, but the direction this was taking made her stomach sour.

“It shouldn’t have been such a surprise to me that you didn’t want to date me. I mean, you told me from the beginning you wouldn't.”

Oh, no. She didn’t like the direction this was taking _at all_.

“Still… “ He wiped his nose with the back of his hand and shook his head. “Anyway. You made yourself clear, and I was willing to accept that. That’s why I skipped our Saturday night…”, he paused, “…dates.”

“Link, I'm so sorry, I – “

He interrupted her with a gesture.

“Let me finish, ok? I'm not sure if I will find the courage to try again.”

She sagged back in the makeshift sofa, the romantic scenery he had created _screaming_ at her.

“At the opening ceremony, I met a girl, Paya. She was nice and since you rejected me, I thought I give it a try.”

She looked at him with wide eyes, _horrified_ even when she realized that she had driven him into the arms of another woman with her own words.

“We met for breakfast the next day. And we… we…”, he trailed off, but she had heard enough.

“Link, I'm so sorry”, she whispered. “I didn’t know… oh God. Tell her that I forced myself on you, I don’t care.” She stumbled to her feet, her legs wobbly from sitting on the ground and her emotions. “I won't stand in your way. I'm sorry that I kissed you.”

“Zelda!” She heard him on her way inside. “Wait! That’s not… Zelda!”

“It’s ok”, she muttered, to him, to herself, she wasn’t sure.

As if.

Nothing was ok.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh, ehm, hi. *waves at everybody* That was not the kiss you all imagined for Valentine's Day, correct? Well, I have good news. Three, to be precise.  
> 1\. I wrote a Valentine's zelink fic. It's titeled 'It's in his kiss', so _maybe_ there's another kiss of my favorite dorks. [Read it here!](https://archiveofourown.org/works/29174058)  
> 2\. This is the last cliffhanger in this fic, I swear.  
> 3\. I began writing the additional scene, the setting is already finished. I just have to figure out what exactly I want them to do in the smut part.


	38. Chapter 38

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are slowly entering NSFW territory, so you might want to read this at home. 😎 (this one and chapter 39, 41 and 42. 😂)

Nothing was ok. She leaned on the kitchen counter, pressing both index fingers in her eyes to stop the tears.

Nothing was _ever_ going to be ok again.

It was easy to picture them. Link burying his nose in her long hair, Link leaving purple marks on her sensitive spots, Link playing beach volleyball with her with an easy smile on his pretty face. Of course, Paya would wear a skimpy bikini and not the horrible outdated thing she had bought after Tetra's birth to hide her post-baby-belly. And every fight they would have would raise her hopes that he might choose _her_ this time. 

He had followed her into the beach house. Of course, he had. 

“Zel.” She brushed his hand aside. She didn’t need his pity. 

“It’s ok, Link. I just need a moment. The set-up you chose the last two days, it made me believe… well, it was foo – “ 

He interrupted her by pressing his lips to hers again. She gasped, and he withdrew immediately. 

“Sorry, but you wouldn't stop talking nonsense.” 

“I… what?” 

“I’m not sorry that I kissed you. _At all._ Well, I'm sorry about the last one because non-consensual kissing is rude, but I'm not sorry for the first one and now I'm talking nonsense too, I guess.” 

He had the nerve to chuckle. 

She quashed the urge to slap him because that was rude, too. 

“I didn’t see her again. I don’t want to.” 

“I’m not sure if I can follow. Where is your problem then?” 

“I..., well, we...” 

He cast his gaze downwards, saying nothing. Shifted. Gulped. 

“You slept with her…”, she whispered when it hit her like lightning. 

Now, he nodded and peeped at her to see her reaction. 

“I’m sorry.” 

She was grateful for the steadying kitchen counter behind her because it meant one thing less to worry about. 

“Ok, but…” She pressed her shaky hands to her cheeks for a moment. “I’m still not sure if I understand the problem. We…”, she coughed, “both know it was not your first one-night-stand. Wait. She isn't pregnant, is she?” 

Another wave of horror crashed through her bones. 

“I'm not that careless. Well. I was one time but that was something else, that was you.” 

Whatever that meant. 

She tried to connect the dots he had given her, but it was difficult. Her mind was either three steps behind or two ahead but refused to make sense of the situation. 

“That’s the stupidity you were talking about? But… sorry. I still don’t get it.” 

“Zelda, I know you care about me, too. I just… wasn't sure how much. But when you said, dating me would be weird…” 

She cringed at her choice of words, realizing how often he must have turned them in his head when they slipped so easily from his tongue. 

“I knew it was wrong the whole time. I wanted _you_ and not someone else. I was so ashamed of myself. I threw everything that we have out of the window for a one-night-stand!” 

The fog lifted and stupefied, she asked: 

“You think you _cheated_ on me?! But… ” That was hilarious. She had told him that they were not together, how could he think that? 

He nodded, seeming relieved that she understood him. 

“Kind of. And then I did the one thing I always do when things are getting difficult. I ran away.” 

“Oh, wow.” Pulling her phone from her neck, she put it on the kitchen counter next to her and brought it into line with the edges. Avoided his gaze for her next words. “But you came back.” 

Reluctantly, he took her hands, always allowing her to pull away. 

“I realized that you are so much more to me. Both of you, Tetra, too.” He stroked his thumbs over the back of her hands. “You showed me what family means. And even if you still don’t want to be with me, I will always stay true to that.” 

The smile she shot him made her tears fall, but she didn’t care and pulled him in a hug instead. 

“I'm sorry”, he whispered against her neck. 

She laughed quietly which made him pull back to look at her. “You are talking to the woman who lost track about taking the pill. Who reassured you not to worry about protection. Our whole friendship is based on forgiveness.” Stroking his cheekbone with her thumb, she added: “And I'm still in the lead on the scoreboard of stupidities, I guess. Denying my feelings for you brought you into this situation.” 

He looked sheepishly in the space between them. “Uh, we are even then. I had a little crash with the bike on the way to Zora's Domain because I was going too fast.” 

She pushed against his chest with her flat hands. “Link!” 

“Nothing happened, ok? I was back when the driver of the truck poured her water bottle on me and the rest was a walk in the park for Mipha.” 

“You were unconscious?!” 

“Just two broken ribs”, he murmured and louder: “Can I kiss you?” 

“Don’t change the subject!” 

He raised his hands at his sides and shrugged. 

“Sorry? Won’t happen again?” 

Hylia above, this idiot. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him. His hands came to rest on the sides of her head, and she relaxed sighing in the kiss, much as he. He bumped his forehead against hers when they parted again. 

“So, you don’t think I'm a jerk?” 

“It was certainly not one of your finest moments”, she sighed. “But… well. You obviously care so much about me that you had an early midlife crisis about that. Guess, that's good news for me.” 

She kissed the expression of disbelief off his face. 

“That's… that’s one way to see it.” He shook his head. “Zelda, you are truly an amazing woman.” 

“Though… I would appreciate it that you stay true to your heart in the future.” 

“Of course. So…”, his gaze was on her lips again while he spoke, “dating is a thing now?” 

“No.” 

His eyes flashed back to hers, and she felt his shoulders stiffen under her arms. 

“I thought we skip the dating part and you just unpack your stuff in my apartment when we come back.” 

“You”, he took a breath and whispered against her mouth, “want me to move in.” 

She closed the gap, the simple pressure of his lips on hers sending her directly to heaven. No more pining, no more denying, and most importantly, no more doubt. 

“We can wait if it’s too fast. But we _have_ been practically dating for a year and you're with us anyway half of the time.” 

“Zel, we started a family at our first meeting. I think too fast is relative in our case”, he grinned at her. 

“So, that's a yes?” 

“Waking up with this gorgeous woman in my arms for the rest of my life? You don’t have to ask.” 

A blush glowed on her cheeks due to his bold words. 

“We speak again when you find yourself in a painting, covered in lace.” 

Playing with a strand of her hair, he laughed and whispered in her ear: “That’s a price I’m willing to pay.” 

His hot breath in her ear stirred something in her, and she pulled him in another kiss, lips parting quickly, hastily even. He didn’t need another invitation. She answered the tease of his tongue by offering him only the tip of hers, tempting him in a chase of lips and teeth and tongues. 

The whole day she had resisted the impulse to roam her hands over his shoulders and his arms, and now she could finally give in. His biceps twisted under her touch. Every motion of her hands seemed to draw him nearer until he pressed his body against hers and angled her head to deepen the kiss once more. The motion of his lips had a demanding, claiming undercurrent she was all too willing to let herself sweep along. It was so easy, so enticing to get lost in the way his fingers drifted over her arms, her collarbones, came to a rest at her nape to pull her in, and she surrendered eagerly. She savored every bit of him, his mouth, how his body heat washed over her, his hard muscles pressed against her soft body, his hard – oh. _Oh_. 

Breaking the kiss, she rocked against him, a little sway of her hips to show him she had noticed and shot him a half-suppressed grin. 

“Uhm”, he started, but she laid her finger on his lips. 

“Don’t apologize.” She followed the line of his lips with the pad of her index. “I’ve nearly forgotten how it feels to be a woman and not just a Mum.” 

He pressed his slightly opened mouth on her pulse point, his hands wandering from her nape to her torso where he rubbed his thumbs over her ribs. 

“I can help with that”, he murmured against her neck. “I might have fantasized about this once or twice.” 

“W-with _me_?” 

“Zelda”, he rasped in her ear, voice so low from arousal that the heat roaming through her body bolted immediately downwards, “You are a Goddess.” 

“A Goddess with stretch marks”, she sighed. 

He raised her chin and said as serious as he could get with blown pupils and flushed cheeks: “They only add up to your perfection.” 

“Show me.” 

He groaned and it was as if her words had opened a flood gate between them. She felt him pushing her into the kitchen counter, kissing her with clashing teeth, both of his hands holding her face. It may have been his gentle side that stole her heart away, but it was this wild part of him that thrilled her now. She shoved his tank top up to reach his abs, captivated by how _responsive_ he was to her touch. Link lifted her and sat her on the kitchen counter so that he could stand between her legs. He slid his hands under the wide skirt of her summer dress, up her thighs until he reached her hipbones and pulled her to the corner of the counter. She bent down to kiss him again, felt her pulse drumming against his firm body at the apex of her thighs, and now she was the one claiming him. He gave in just as  freely,  released her hips and roamed his hands over her waist, the thin fabric of her dress doing nothing to lessen the urgency of his touch. When he abandoned her lips in favor of her neck, trailing hot kisses down from the point behind her ear down to her collarbone, she leaned her head back to give him better access and sighed – this was even better than she remembered. 

She wrapped her legs around his torso and pulled him nearer, sitting dangerously close to the edge, only stopped by his waist from sliding down. He tugged at the corner of her bra with his teeth, and she caught him smirking when the stretchy fabric slipped aside and revealed her nipple. Grazing the bud with his teeth before sucking gently, he lowered his hands to her thighs again, this time over the fabric. The needy noise that escaped her seemed to encourage him even more because he forced his thumbs between them and rubbed her through too many layers of clothes. She buried her hands in his hair and pulled him up again – it had been too long since she had kissed him. 

They separated panting, and he groaned against her lips: “Zelda, I swear, if you don’t stop me, I’m gonna take you right here on the kitchen counter.” 

She grinned at the prospect, considering shortly if she should try him on that, before she settled for another searing kiss, the motion of their tongues slowly getting messy from impatience. 

They had thirty seconds from the rustling of the baby phone app until Tetra’s tapping feet entered the kitchen. 

“Mommy? Daddy?”, her tired voice came from the door. 

Zelda was still occupied with calming her ragged breath and rearranging her summer dress when she answered. “Yes? W-what is it, darling?” 

“I woke up and there is something spooky in my room. A monster light or something like that.” She rubbed her eyes, slowly waking up. “Mommy? Why are you sitting on the kitchen counter? You told me, I mustn’t. That’s… that’s unfair.” 

Zelda suppressed her chuckle. In a few years, this wouldn't be her only worry catching her parents in a situation like this. 

Link clicked his tongue. “Sitting on the kitchen counter, you naughty woman.” He leaned in and purred in her ear, sending a rush of anticipation through her veins: “If you still want me to show you... my room is farther away from Tetra’s. I’m back as fast as I can.” He pressed a kiss on her swollen lips, before he whispered barely audible: “Uh, and get rid of that unnerving dress.” 

Then he turned towards Tetra, coughed twice to get his voice to its normal timbre, and pointed at her, saying: “And we two go on a monster hunt now.” 

Zelda hopped down, her legs a bit weak from the strained sitting position and her arousal. She followed them when she heard Tetra whispering – well, what she thought was whispering – in Link’s direction. 

“It’s not a secret anymore?” 

Link, who had been busy redoing his ponytail, shifted from one foot to the other, stealing a glance back at Zelda. He nodded. 

Tetra turned towards Zelda, her mouth covered with her small hands, and she giggled. “Link is in love with you, Mommy!” 

“Yes”, Zelda smiled at her. “I know. I’m in love with him, too.” 

Link turned around fully and his bright smile radiated so much warmth, that she was sure she would never be cold in her life again. 

Her hand over her heart, she leaned against the door frame of his, no their bedroom, and watched her loved ones disappearing through Tetra’s door. 

What a wonderful,  curious family they had become.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't say yet when I will update, the next chapter will be the additional scene. Won't be too long, but perhaps not as fast as you are used to.


	39. Chapter 39

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, I'm super late, but here I am.  
> Just in case anyone hasn't read my other notes, this chapter is NSFW. In case you don't like that, imagine there's a fade to black after Link enters the room, you won't miss relevant plot.
> 
> As always - comments make my day!

As Zelda had pulled the dress over her head, she tossed it over a nearby chair and paused. It… it was normal that she was a little nervous, wasn’t it? Back then in the kitchen, they were driven by the heat of the moment, but this, this was suddenly so _calculated_. What… what was she supposed to do now? Lying down in the bed and shooting him her best bedroom eyes when he came back? No, he would probably laugh at her, they knew each other too well for such games.

Perhaps she should start with the ambiance. One after another, she tried the different sources of light the room had to offer and settled for the bedside lamp in the end. Yes, much better. The dim light helped at least that she didn’t feel so exposed. She crawled under the thin cotton cover, grabbed the tourist information file, and flipped through the pages without looking at them.

She had reacted correctly to Link's confession, hadn't she? He had been so anxious! Again, she felt inside her, but she couldn’t make out anything else than relief. It was odd that something that coaxed such a heavy reaction from him worried her so little, but his sorrow was exactly what had calmed her down. Nobody had ever gotten so emotional over her! Wasn’t that the last proof that he truly cared about her? Others might have shrugged it off, they weren’t dating, he owed her nothing. But not Link. Not with her at least. He had thrown himself headfirst in a swirl of emotions, seeking guidance from his childhood friend, and had come back with a whole new sight of life. He had _grown_ because he cared about her, she could see it from the retro perspective of the last days. Really, what was there to be mad about?

The door opened a crack and Link entered the bedroom. 

“Hey”, he smiled at her. “You are here.” His eyes traveled through the room, lingered on her dress on the chair, and came back to her. “Uh, o-ok.”

“Why should I be somewhere else?”

Scratching his neck, he answered: “I don’t know, maybe I gave you too much time to think by putting Tetra back to bed and taking care of the fire.”

“Well, you are right, I _did_ think about everything.”

“And?”

She gave him a flat look. When he didn’t move, she fingered the clasp of her bra open and slipped out of the lingerie piece under the cover. Good thing that she had opted for the one with the front-hook.

He still looked at her like a deer in the spotlight.

She tossed him the bra, and the cotton cover slipped from her shoulders, revealing her half-naked form.

“Take a guess.”

Finally, he chuckled.

“Come on”, she laughed, “stop making this awkward by standing there. We just have to get in the mood again.”

“Yeah, ok, sure.” He lifted the hem of his tank top. “Uhm, should… should I…”

“Yes, _please_.” She swung her legs out of the bed, walked over to him, and wrapped her arms around his neck, ignoring his sharp inhale when her breasts pressed against his chest. 

“Hey.” She bumped her forehead against his. “What's up? Why are you suddenly so shy? Do _you_ have second thoughts?”

Hugging her tight, he buried his face in her naked shoulder, sliding his hands slowly over her back.

“Never, Zelda.” He murmured and began to pepper her neck with little kisses. “Maybe I just realized that you really want to be with me. Relationship, living together, family and all, the whole thing. Every day.”

“Yes”, she smiled and raised his chin. “Yes, that’s what I want. With you. _Only_ with you.”

He pressed a kiss to her lips. “Same here.”

Suddenly, he grinned. “Ok, then.” With dizzying speed, he picked her up bridal style, took a few steps, and tossed her on the bed.

“Link!”, she shrieked.

“What?”, he answered muffled through his shirt. “You complained that I'm making this awkward.”

“Just come over here and kiss me already.”

And kiss her, he did.

They started slowly, taking time to explore each other again, caressing warm skin with deft hands. It was different to be with him like that, so _close_ , so intimate. That night, five years ago (could it really be five years already?), had been heated, wild even, perhaps freed from every reserve by the knowledge that they were just two people with a lot of chemistry. That they would most likely never see each other again. _Strangers in the night_.

But now, ghosting her lips over his collarbones, his shoulders, digging her fingers into his biceps, and nuzzling over his scratchy cheek could, _would_ be the new normal. She took a moment to hover over his lips, just to drink the sight of him in, to remind her that she could drive her fingers over his jaw, that his eyes were hooded because of _her_. 

He smiled and closed the gap again.

She laid back a moment, allowing him to nip at the skin of her neck with his lips while he half towered over her. The kisses he placed all over her upper body lost soon their innocence, and she couldn’t help but grin when she felt him suck at the flesh of her breasts. She wove her fingers in his hair and pressed him down to keep him exactly where he had marked her the last time. A groan left him, and with a last lick over the quickly forming bruise, he came up to kiss her lips again. 

“Link?”

He interrupted the line of kisses he peppered on her cheekbone. “Yeah?”

“Do you... do you have by any chance something for protection? I just... I just want to know in advance how far we can go.”

“Good point”, he answered with a peck on her lips. “Wait a moment. I should have...”

Rummaging through his stuff, the mattress dipped with his weight shortly after, and he was back with a condom. “You know, I met a woman once... well, crazy story, I spare you the details, but since then I have one nearby most of the time.”

She slapped his forearm to stop him from smirking. “You! You are an evil bastard, you know that?”

Catching her wrist, he pinned her down on the bed, his body flush against hers, his hips _exactly_ where she wanted them to be. “Yes”, he breathed into her ear, grabbing her backside and pressed her further into him, “I'm well aware.”

He had kissed her in between, so that she moaned in his mouth, causing him to smirk again. Releasing her wrist, he let his hands travel down her body, until he reached her breasts, and stroked his thumbs firmly over the peaks.

“Ya like that, yes?” He teased when she arched into his touch and inhaled deeply. Placing another kiss on her cleavage, he hooked his fingers in the hem of her panty. “Then let’s start with the good stuff.”

And Hylia above, did he deliver. His hands stroked over her thighs, gentle yet firm, and his fingers seemed to know exactly what she wanted. At least, he had the decency not to tease her further. Instead, he caressed, rubbed, and encircled her sensitive flesh, rewarding every gasp and every moan from her with more pressure. His touch was tender but had still an urgent underlying that left her craving for more and more and more.

The words must have slipped her, because he suddenly grinned anew and dipped two fingers into her, searching, until…

“Great goddess, Link!” Her fingernails dug deep in his biceps, but she was long beyond caring.

His fingers curled again and again and soon, the meandering tension in her lower belly evolved into blissful heat. He pumped a building rhythm, in and out, but then he shifted until he kneeled between her legs, placing little kisses on her belly, going deeper... and paused.

“Zel?”, he asked quietly, withdrew his fingers, and kneaded her hipbones with his thumbs.

He didn’t expect a coherent answer, _now_ , when she was busy chasing after the heavenly sparks, he gifted her, did he?

“Hm?”

Another kiss, a little deeper. 

“I... want to do something for you, but I haven’t done this in years.” He pressed his lips where her trimmed hair began. “So... maybe this will be a bit experimental. Tell me wha-”

She silenced him with a tuck on his hair and pushed him where she wanted him most. Mercifully, he not only chuckled but pressed his mouth down on her, too. Her hands stayed fisted in his hair when he began to kiss her heat, and she resisted the urge to signal him to go faster immediately. Although he was far from clumsy, his lips lacked the unmistakable drive he was able to create with his fingers.

She encouraged every flick of his tongue, every nip of his lips with a tightening grip on his hair to help him. He was attentive as ever when it came to her, always the quick learner, and translated her gasps into a pattern that rekindled the fire in her core fast and strongly. Grasping the sheets under her, she melted into the high he was giving her. Just when he added his fingers again and the tension grew nearly unbearable, she gestured him to come up.

“Hm? You didn’t finish.”

“No. I...” She gave him a peck on his lips to buy her time to catch her breath again. “I want everything of you.”

He coughed his smirk into his fist. “I _heard_ women could finish more than once.”

“You try again to tell me you are not a womanizer." She playfully rolled her eyes at him. “No, I just fear that I might be oversensitive after such a long time. So...”

Pressing a kiss on her palm, he nodded. “As you wish. Anything in mind?”

“Actually...” She sneaked her hand into his boxer shorts, catching the gasp that left him when she wrapped her fingers around him with her lips. While she had only planned to ensure that he was still hard, she couldn’t resist relishing the way he twitched into her palm, and he leaned his forehead against her shoulder.

“Good?”

He hummed and closed his eyes.

“So...”, she breathed next to his ear while she stroked him, “since you’ve done all the work until now, I would like to take over.”

“Sure”, he answered a little hoarsely. “Just let me...” He motioned towards the direction where he had left the condom. She released him and soon he was back. 

He piled some pillows against the head of the bed, leaned back on them, and pulled her onto his lap.

“Like this?”, she whispered while she straddled him and shifted to find a comfortable position.

He nodded and inhaled sharply when she began to take him in. “Zelda...”

“Oh”, she murmured, the stretch and the sheer fullness taking her breath away, “Oh, wow.” Her hands came to a rest on his shoulders, and she closed her eyes, savoring the sensation of her muscles clenching around him on their own accord. “I have... forgotten how _perfect_ you are.”

He huffed a laugh that vibrated straight through her core, slid his hands up her thighs, and breathed: “Take your time, Zel. I’ve got the best view in whole Lurelin.”

She closed the gap between them and kissed him, slowly and deliberately. He slipped his tongue into her mouth, roamed his hands up her torso to brush over her breasts. The sudden sparks his movements sent in direction of her lower belly let her finally give up her passivity. They tried to kiss along her gentle rhythm at first, but soon the built-up he had given her in advance took the best of her, and she had to increase the speed. He seemed to be satisfied with watching her ride him, only dragging his hands over her body occasionally for now. She felt nearly selfish as she relied on her own pleasure to find the pace, but his ragged breath and his only half-opened eyes told her that he enjoyed himself as well.

So, she just kept going, eyes fluttering shut from accepting him again and again and again, the physical pleasure nearly as satisfying as the feeling of just _being_ with him like that. Just when she sensed that the brink appeared in her grasp again, he began rocking his hips up into hers, hitting _that_ spot inside her. He must have felt it too, as he was more active now, shifting under her to increase the friction, to feel her.

Gasping, he sat up, letting his fingertips wander along her waist to her back, pulling her towards him with gentle pressure. “Come here”, he whispered against the skin of her neck, driving his hands under her arms up into her hair, “I need you closer.” She leaned down until she was flush against him, resting her cheek somewhere at the crown of his head, her fingers entangled in his hair. Skin on skin, breath for breath, they moved together for the next moments, one in heart and body and soul when the rush of their climax took them. She guided them through in gentle waves, letting the sensation fade away until they were Zelda and Link again. 

She felt him slowly soften inside her, but neither of them was willing to part yet. He caressed her eyebrows, her cheekbones and cupped her chin before he kissed and kissed her again. She closed her eyes and breathed him in. When she opened them again, his arms had tightened around her, and he buried his face in the crook of her neck. Just when she felt her skin dampened he pulled back with a warm smile on his face. She kissed the moisture in the corners of his eyes away, rested their foreheads together, and whispered: “Life is good, isn't it?”

“Yeah”, he croaked, holding her gaze, “Life is good.”


	40. Chapter 40

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I split the next chapter because it would get horribly long otherwise. 😊

Zelda glanced back at him, her finger hovering over the fingerprint sensor, and she asked for the sixth or seventh time since they had left her apartment: “Are you sure? I still think he should earn our trust again.” 

“Zelda.” Link rubbed her forearm through her coat. “You taught me that punishment poisons relationships. Remember what I said. Your father is weak, not evil. If it doesn’t work out, we just grab a bottle of champagne and run for the next taxi without looking back, ok?” 

She pulled him into an open-mouthed kiss that let him forgot for a moment that they were about to spend their evening in the company of a group of business people neither of them cared about. 

“If you ask me, that should have been plan A from the beginning, but whatever.” 

The bars inside the gate snapped open and holding hands, they made their way to the mansion. He could tell that Zelda was anxious. She had smoothed out her braid three times since they had left the taxi, and he could feel her twisting fingers even through two pairs of mittens. 

When the hurricane of emotions of their first evening in Lurelin had calmed down, and they had settled into a new routine of kissing and blissful family moments, her father had tried to reach her again. Zelda refused to talk to him, but the frown on her face wouldn't vanish for hours. 

They talked late into the night that evening. She had told him everything – how he never saw her, how she wished he would accept her as she was, and how she couldn’t break ties with him because she still loved him despite everything. 

This openness – it was one of the things he loved most about her. Sometimes, she was so raw, so vulnerable, and she didn’t hold back anymore when she was with him. She let him see everything of her and so did he. 

When he had first proposed to cut their holiday short to attend the dinner and return to Lurelin with the tickets her father had booked for Monday, she had given him a look that had doubted his state of mind. She didn’t want to reward her father's behavior by giving him the satisfaction of her appearance, but in the end, she gave in as a gesture of goodwill. Perhaps the remark that she could show off her new boyfriend to stop him from setting her up with his fellow business partners had convinced her at last. 

They had nearly crossed the gravel path leading towards the mansion when she tugged his hand to stop him and compelled him into a hug. 

“Hey”, he spoke in her hair, “I’m here with you. You are not alone anymore, ok? You are perfect the way you are.” He drew his hand out of his mitten and cupped her chin to kiss her. “I love you because you are not like everybody else, don’t you dare to forget that.” 

“What would I do without you?” 

“Being married off to another odd guy, probably.” 

“Ouch.” She smiled and took his hand again. “Perhaps I should try to convince him to marry me off to you.” 

He stopped them again directly in front of the large double-door. “Does that... well… I... I assumed you didn’t…” 

“You thought I wouldn’t want to marry again?” 

“Yes? I mean, would you? I understand if you don’t want and I’m ok with that, but…” 

She stepped closer and caressed his lips with a soft kiss. 

“But…?” 

He didn't stop the light feeling in his stomach turn into a silly grin. 

“Just testing the waters.” 

“Well”, she laughed and rang the doorbell, “I swore a lot of things to myself and I couldn’t be happier that I threw them all out of the window for you.” 

All of them? Did that mean she… she would want? 

He was about to ask, but one of the doors opened. A very small, older woman greeted them with a warm smile. 

“Miss Zelda, darling, now that's a surprise!” 

She ushered them in and hugged Zelda, while he stood in the large hallway in awe. Of course, he had known that her family was rich, but seeing it in every inch of the place was something else. Brushing his fingers over a chest of drawers, he marveled over the surprisingly tastefully furnished and decorated interior. Unmistakably expensive with fine carpets and antiques, but the colors were modest and everything seemed to fit perfectly together. 

When he had finished his little inspection, the woman in front of him smiled at him with open hands, and he realized that she was waiting for his coat. 

“Henya, this is Link. My boyfriend and Tetra's father.” 

Link handed his cloak over, took her offered hand, and winked at her when her puzzled expression turned into a fond smile again. 

“Nice to meet you, Henya.” 

Henya hurried to squeeze Zelda's hand again, whispering: 

“Boyfriend?” 

“Yes”, Zelda beamed. “It’s a… recent development.” 

Henya hugged her again. 

“It’s so good to see you finally happy again, Miss Zelda." She  chuckled and pointed at him. "And you, too, Link. You're grinning like a love-struck fool, if you don’t mind my honesty.”

“Well.” He scratched his neck. “That’s actually not so far from the truth.” 

They all laughed, and while Henya guided them to the dining room, Zelda explained: 

“Henya is father’s housekeeper. She has been living with us since forever, always the heart of the mansion. If you ask me it’s only due to his staff that father has kept a rest of his sanity in this museum.” 

“Miss Zelda!” 

“What?” She laughed. “You know that is true.” 

Henya opened a majestic oak door for them and gave a hint of a bow. 

“I’ll inform the kitchen that we have two more guests. Enjoy your evening. Mr. Bosphoramus will be very delighted to see you, I'm sure.” 

He was. He hurried over to them, calling: “Zelda, my dear!” 

Only when he was a few feet away, he seemed to remember that they weren’t on good terms, and stopped short. Squeezing her shoulder, he pressed his lips together. 

“Zelda, I apologize for the distress I caused you. My intentions were pure, I hope you know that. I deeply appreciate that you are here tonight.” He released her and his hand dropped to his side. “Despite everything.” 

He turned to Link and shook his hand. 

“Link. I have to apologize to you as well. I did not mean to cross your plans, I was unaware that you were involved as well. Let me know if you have any outlays, I am happy to compensate for them.” 

“Mr. Bosphoramus.” He nodded. “Actually, we decided to come back for the dinner and if you don’t mind, we would take your offer and would return to Lurelin on Monday.” 

“Oh? Now that is an excellent proposal.” 

He smiled and gestured to follow him. 

“I would like to introduce you to the other guests.” 

Zelda slipped her hand in Link's and interlaced their fingers. The casual gesture didn’t go unnoticed. Mr. Bosphoramus hesitated, raised his eyes to Zelda, and sighed crestfallen. 

“Zelda, please. There is no need to pretend for me. Personally, I think it is a pity, but if you are not ready to see someone, I will not force you.” 

The proud, strong company leader was washed away for a moment and the frown on his face made him look worn, sad, and old. 

“Oh, don't worry, father, we don’t pretend”, Zelda smirked. 

And with that, she kissed him. She didn’t stop for five long seconds even when her father politely cleared his throat. Of course, Link kissed her back. This was her fight. She chose the weapons and if that meant kissing her, he was the last to complain. 

When they finally broke apart, he expected her father to be shocked or angry, perhaps. It was obvious that Link was far away from his ideal of a son-in-law and that he was an explorer and not a businessman or lawyer was only half of the truth. 

Link wasn't surprised when he was cold and distant towards him when they first met. From his perspective, it made all sense. Link had knocked up his precious daughter, leaving her not only to the gossip mongers without a word but to the task of raising a child alone, too. The pregnancy had not only hammered the last nail in the coffin of her marriage but broke the arrangement of Ganondorf as his company heir as well in the long run. He had built up a grudge towards him over the years without even knowing his name. 

And then, four years later he showed up out of nothing and befriended his daughter despite everything. He didn’t argue her out of her  modern parenting. Encouraged ideas of leading a lab. Emboldened her to speak up for herself. 

But locking eyes with him told him that it had been the right decision to come. That he had been correct to show him his goodwill towards Tetra and Zelda again and again. To never give up the faith to win him over. Opinions could change. 

“Oh”, he said, his lips pinched in a line, but his eyes far from hard. “I see.” 

“That went better than expected”, Zelda whispered, half suppressing her laughter in Link's direction when they followed him to the other guests. 

“I told you that he loves me!”, he grinned back. 

“Link, everybody loves you.” 

“Uh, oh, I’m not sure about your ex. Could imagine that jail sucks.” 

“I hope it does.” She grinned and kissed him again. 

Dinner was better than they had feared. The cooking was good, a little too Haute cuisine perhaps. He preferred honest, rich street food over fancy names and miniature aspics, but since it was a five-course dinner, he wouldn’t leave the table hungry. Especially since Zelda discreetly offered him her plate with the pieces she disliked. 

Conversations with the surrounding guests around them flew surprisingly easily. The couple vis-à-vis had a son in Tetra's age, so they spend a good deal of time talking about misspoken words and crazy stunts. When the casual part of the evening started and everybody was asked into the parlor, a guy named Canton jumped in when he found out that Zelda and he were both working for the National Museum. Canton was the junior manager of one of the companies, but his compassion were the old legends, and he had just visited the new exhibition. When he started to pester Link with questions about his time in Termina, Zelda used the opportunity to slip away to catch up with the staff. Just when Link explained that Majora's Mask was as far as the experts could tell no threat anymore, Mr. Bosphoramus joined the conversation. When Canton started to topple over with pleasantries before his boss' face, his wife tugged him away with a polite nod. 

Mr. Bosphoramus sighed quietly, took two glasses of whiskey from a servant, and offered one to Link. He took it hesitantly. 

“I can not understand why everybody assumes that leaders are weak for flattering. Perhaps I am truly too intimidating.” 

Link shifted from one foot to the other. He better not messed this up for Zelda's sake. 

“I don’t think it's that. I had the same problem with my team in Termina and I'm…” Yes, what? Should he have reassured him that he wasn’t intimidating? Very convincing when he was still trying to figure out what to do with his hands. “…very casual.” 

Mr. Bosphoramus' gaze snapped to Link as if he was seeing him for the first time. 

“You were leading a team?” 

“Sure.” Link shrugged. “I was the project manager. 30 direct reports, responsibility for the budget, strategic planning, everything.” 

“Oh. How old did you say are you?” 

“Now? 30. Back then, I was 25. Urbosa doesn’t care about numbers like age, but that’s probably no news to you.” 

“Yes, yes”, he laughed. “That is a repeated discussion between us.” 

He raised his glass in the direction of the balcony. 

“I need some air. Would you mind joining me?” 

Link nodded his approval and took a deep, silent breath when Mr. Bosphoramus had turned around. People skills had always been one of his strengths, hopefully today was no exception.


	41. Chapter 41

The balcony was as impressive as the rest of the mansion. It opened to a large backyard, a patio direct under their feet and low hedges around rose bushes and statues. Not a single twig seemed to be out of place. He wondered if there had been a sand-box or a swing when Zelda was younger. 

Mr. Bosphoramus fingered a small box out of his front pocket and offered him a cigar. Link tried to cover his cringe by raising his hands in defense.

“I… I don’t want to be impolite, but I don’t smoke.” 

The older man shrugged and helped himself to a cigar. After he blew the first smoke in the cold winter air, he leaned his elbows on the armor balustrade. 

“Me neither. Just on the evening of the dinner every year.” He circled the cigar in his fingers, taking his time to speak. His smile looked a little sad under the full moon. “I used to come here with my wife and Urbosa, back then. They were… very close.” 

“I’m sorry for your loss.” 

“Thank you.” He sighed deeply and frowned. “Well, and then I smoked countless cigars here with this criminal and every single one was one too much. I thank Hylia every day that Zelda somehow managed to see through him. It does not bear thinking of if she had not.” 

Link bit his tongue to hinder himself from saying that he ought to better thank Zelda than Hylia and took a tiny sip from his tumbler. The whiskey was fine and tasteful, but the wine from earlier had already found its way into his blood and the last thing he wanted was to be drunk here. 

Neither of them spoke for several moments. Mr. Bosphoramus smoked his cigar in silence while Link busied himself with the view. He didn’t mind silence in general and right now he simply didn’t know what to say.

“I asked you to come here because I wanted to thank you.” 

Link turned his head abruptly. 

“Thank me? I’m not sure if I can follow you.” 

“Yes.” He stared in the backyard. “Zelda… she was so furious last week. When we have a fight or I…”, he cleared his throat, “I make a mistake, she ignores me for four weeks at last. Sometimes six. The last time she attended the dinner was when she was married.” He took a last drag on his cigar before he left it in a nearby ash-tray and turned towards Link. “Now she shortened her first holiday in years to come back although she said only last week that she never wants to see me again. Someone convinced her to come here and since she only saw you and Tetra, I assume that was you.” 

Oh. Link let the ice cubes in his glass circle and swallowed dryly.

“Your assumption is correct, Sir.” 

He looked up, but when he saw the older man’s scrutinizing gaze upon him, he averted his eyes again. 

“Why?” He raised both hands to his side. “Now that you are here you even waste the opportunity to flatter me. What’s your outcome from this?” 

Link stared at him and remembered just in time to close his mouth again. What was wrong with this man? He could easily picture why Zelda clashed violently with him, full of spirits as she was. 

“My… my outcome? I just want Zelda to be happy. She was uneasy about your fight and I wanted to help.” He couldn’t help but snort while he shook his head and murmured to himself. “My outcome.” The whiskey was hot and dry in his throat when he gulped a large portion down. He tried to swallow all the things he would like to add down, too. If he wanted to help Zelda to improve her relationship with her father, any sharp word would cause only harm.

Crossing his arms and swirling his own whiskey in his glass, Mr. Bosphoramus exhaled through his nose. 

“My apologies, Link. Life has not been kind to me in the last years. I did not mean to offend you.” 

“No offense taken, Sir.” 

“So, you say you care about her, yes? Does that mean you plan to make her an honorable woman again?” 

Once more, Link snapped his mouth shut and controlled his temper by biting his cheek. Thank Hylia for his  typically quiet nature. 

“I don’t think that I can make her something that she already is on her own. But if you inquire about the sincerity of my intentions, you don’t have to worry.” He raised his glass to his lips but paused before drinking. “I understand that you are not fond of our story and our lifestyle. I can see why you doubt me. You know what, I would be mad if you wouldn't after everything.”

He saw narrowed eyes looking back at him. 

“You are an interesting dialog partner, Link.” A pointed finger joined the eyes. “Keep it up, please. I have very few people who speak their mind in my presence.” 

“As you wish.” 

“So, no marriage. Well, I have to live with the fact that the young folks see things differently.” 

“I never said we wouldn't”, Link grinned in his tumbler. “I assume you want me to ask you beforehand?”

“No, no.” Mr. Bosphoramus covered his eyes with his hands and drove them over his white hair afterwards. “I approved a criminal and that nearly cost us everything. My opinion in this matter is of no worth, I fear.” 

It was the inconvenient truth and the pain was apparent in Mr. Bosphoramus' furrowed eyebrows and the purse of his lips. 

Link cleared his throat. He hadn’t thought about it this way yet. “I’m sorry.” 

“I have made so many mistakes.” Mr. Bosphoramus shook his head at himself. “The worst is, I keep doing them. I was so afraid that this was the last time. That she would truly not come back”, he whispered and Link wasn’t sure if he was speaking to him or to himself. Mr. Bosphoramus paused before he downed the rest of his whiskey.

“How do you do that? Tetra talks about you all the time. I mean, you showed up out of nothing last year, and she loves you as if you have always been there.” 

Flabbergasted, Link blinked at the older man. “Mr. Bosphoramus, are… are you asking _me_ for a father-daughter-advice?” 

The man in question blinked back as if he was surprised himself that he did, looked at the ice cubes in his empty tumbler, and then back to Link. 

“Yes, I guess I do.” 

“Oh, wow.” Scratching his neck, he considered his next words. “Well… I told you last week that she is perfect the way she is. I don’t try to form her into something else. Of course, that doesn’t mean she is allowed to hurt someone and stuff like that, but we prefer to teach her a better way to stand up for herself than punishing her.” He paused to let his words sink in. “What I want to say is that I…I try to help her on her way. But the way itself is up to her. Maybe it’s that.” 

For a long time, Mr. Bosphoramus said nothing. He propped himself up on the balustrade again and looked at the dark sky. In his back, Link couldn't help but smile. People could change. 

“You must think I’m a horrible father.” 

“No.” Link answered deliberately. “No, I don’t. We wouldn’t be here otherwise.” 

“So, what do you suggest?” 

The cold winter air he sucked in, rushed through his upper body. This was dangerous terrain, and he felt his flight reflexes kicking in. 

No. _Not again._

He had asked him to speak freely, so he would. 

“Sir. As far as I can see, you have two things in your life you care deeply about. One is your business and the other is your daughter. Stop mixing them up.” He pointed with his thumb in the direction of the party. “Invite her because you enjoy her company. Of course, you need a business heir someday, but that doesn’t mean he or she has to be married to your daughter.” 

Mr. Bosphoramus faced him again and crossed his arms. 

“You surely are a courageous one, Link.” 

“There’s more where that came from”, he laughed, “but I think for today we leave it there.” 

“Here you are!”, came a voice from the door. 

Link looked up and his heart skipped a beat. Zelda smiled at him, illuminated by the light of the parlor behind her. Her midnight-blue cocktail dress swayed in the winter breeze, and she held a strand of her hair behind her ear to keep it from flying in her face. Back in the apartment, she had been already in her coat and until now he hadn’t had the opportunity to properly look at her. A slight blush from the wine adorned her cheeks and her green eyes sparkled brighter than the stars. How did he get so lucky that she loved him back? 

“Don’t forget to breathe, boy!” Mr. Bosphoramus’ booming laughter and a pat on his shoulder brought him back. 

A glance on Zelda’s nearly bare arms reminded him of his manners, and he hurried to take his jacket off and placed it on her shoulders. 

“Here”, he said, pressing a kiss on her forehead, “you’ll get cold.” 

“Well, well.” Mr. Bosphoramus' gaze flickered between them. “And a gentleman to boots, apparently.” 

Leaning against him, Zelda looked from one to the other. 

“What were you talking about?” 

He rubbed her arms through the jacket and smiled. 

“Setting priorities.” 

“Yes.” Mr. Bosphoramus agreed. “Setting priorities.” 

“Oh, the cigars and the whiskey brought the philosophers out of you, yes?”, she deadpanned and sniffed in his direction. “Did you smoke, too?” 

“No.” Link smiled. Perhaps he better left out the part that he refused because he had serious plans to kiss her senseless later. 

“Zelda.” Her father addressed her and she held his gaze. “I am beyond thankful that you changed your mind and came here tonight. I…”, he swallowed, “I would like to take this opportunity as a new beginning if... if you can find it in your heart.” He shifted and gave the barest hint of opening his arms for her. Link squeezed her shoulders to get her into motion when she hesitated. 

“I am very proud of you, Zelda”, he spoke with her head tugged under his chin. “I might not like every one of your decisions but I learned that I do not have to.” Releasing her, he brushed her arm. “If you… if you need someone for Tetra when you take up the position in the lab, I would be glad to make time for her. Perhaps we can talk about it when you come back from Lurelin.” 

“Oh”, she breathed and blinked the tears away. “Yes, that would help us very much. I… I don’t know what to say.” 

He smiled at them and shook his head. 

“You are very welcome. I suggest that you go inside again then and enjoy the evening. Your significant other must be an ice pillar by now.” 

Zelda bowed her head in acknowledgment, grabbed Link’s hand and tugged him towards the parlor. Mr. Bosphoramus held the door open for them and nodded when they passed. “Link. I have to admit that I enjoyed the last hour greatly. Your insights are revealing.” 

“The pleasure was mine, Mr. Bosphoramus.” 

“Oh, Rhoam is fine.” 

This time, he didn’t shut his mouth in time and still gaped at his future father-in-law when he gave them a last nod and closed the door after them. Zelda wasn't fairing any better beside him. 

“What was that?!” She dragged him through the parlor in the nearest hallway, still shaking her head. “I guess I have to make a new entry on the list. ‘Brainwasher' is it now, yes?” 

“I…”, Link began and chuckled, “I just tried not to ruin everything. Guess that went better than expected.” 

She slapped him playfully on the chest, and he pretended to wince in pain. Seeing her so happy was worth every minute of the uncomfortable conversation in the cold. 

Only now he realized that they had left the party and were in the hallway again. Zelda was guiding him towards the stairs, and he shot her a curious look. 

What was she up to now? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No update tomorrow and I'm not sure about Monday. I rewrote parts of the next scene and now it doesn't have an ending anymore. 😅 I need to fix that, but my mind came up with an idea for an one-shot, and I can't concentrate on writing as long as I haven't at least jotted down the outline.
> 
> (@my Tumblr followers: Yes, I'm talking about the accidental marriage fic from the wip-game 🤣)


	42. Chapter 42

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy belated 35th anniversary to the Legend of Zelda! I still can't believe Nintendo simply ignored it, but here we are. And against better judgement, I hope they are just preparing for something bigger a little later. Pathetic, I know, I know. Once a fangirl, always a fangirl, I guess. 😆
> 
> So, last chapter before we have the epilogue tomorrow. NSFW stuff ahead and a little swearing.

Hand in hand they went up the large rounded stairs and on the first floor, Zelda shoved him suddenly against a pillar to hide them from curious eyes. 

She didn’t waste any time to kiss him with clashing teeth, tugging his button-down shirt out of his belt, pushing his undershirt up until her warm hands moved over his still cold stomach. The alcohol, her tongue on his lips, her body weight pressed against him – he was immediately light-headed. 

“Whoa, Zelda?” 

She nipped on the skin of his neck, dragged her fingernails over his lower back, and he shuddered in pleasure. 

“What, I missed you.” 

“It was only one hour”, he sighed when her mouth made its way up to his ear. He dug his fingers in her waist and let them wander to her backside, never lessening the pressure. 

“But it _felt_ like 100 years. Do you want to see my rooms? They are in the west wing, over the staff's break rooms.” Her lips touching his ear made him dizzy. “And they have a _lock_.” 

The implications of that let him groan and pull her hips flush against him. Let her know that she could turn him on within moments. She kissed him again, hot and impatient. 

“But”, he panted, “we don’t, I mean protection?” 

Her mouth stretched into a wicked grin, and she raised her knee to his side. 

“Hold me.” 

Obediently, he steadied her with his hands on her midsection. 

She brushed the chiffon of her dress upwards, revealing more of her tights. 

“Oh, wow, stockings”, he murmured and glided one hand up her thighs, the silky fabric and her muscle beneath teasing his tactile senses. 

Her lips found his ear once more, whispering: “Go ahead. There's a garter.” 

Again, he followed until his fingertips felt the soft lace and something smooth that was tugged under the garter. Her urgent kiss, the compromising position with her body pressed against his suddenly very tight trousers, and the fact of acting blindly didn’t help to speed up the process, but finally, he freed the little package of its prison. 

Great goddess, this woman. He didn’t need to look to know that it was two condoms. 

“I cut the edges, so they don’t ruin the tights.” 

“Of course, you did”, he muttered weakly. 

They stumbled in the direction she was laying out, kissing and pressing each other into the wall. At last, he even picked her up and sat her on his hips while she sucked on his neck. Before he could process what was happening, she was on her feet again and shoved him into another hallway, locking the door behind them. 

Rooms? This was her own wing. 

“Ok”, she chuckled. “I have a four-poster-bed if you are into prince charming mode tonight. Or…” She stripped his jacket from her shoulders and began unbuttoning his shirt. “…or I have an unreasonable expensive _desk_.” Her voice was raw and suggestive, and he wasn’t sure if they would make it to either of the items when she was talking with him like that. The door seemed sturdy enough. “Finest wood, directly from Faron.” 

She guided his hands to her lower back, fumbled a ribbon in his fingers while her breath tingled on his skin. 

“Come on, help me with that.” 

A sharp tug untied the bow and with a grin, she loosened the dress and let it fall to the ground. 

His head hit the wooden door behind him with a thud and his hands fell limply along her side when he took her in. Her skin was practically _glowing_ in the moonlight, the curves of her body set in scene by a dark set of lingerie. Probably midnight-blue, like her dress, but he couldn’t make it out in the darkness, and he didn’t care anyway. The bra pushed her breasts in such a way up and together that he bet his face would fit perfectly between them when she would let him suck on the soft flesh. The stockings hugged her legs and draw his eyes all the way up, and he groaned when he imagined the lace on her thighs pressing and trembling against his ears while he would savor the sweetness between her legs. 

“Oh, fuck, Zelda, you… _wow_.” Words couldn't describe how _gorgeous_ she was anyway. 

She licked her lips and grinned, borderline smug. “That's the task at hand, yes.” 

With a swift motion, he pulled her against him again and roamed his hands over her body, exploring the muscles on her back, burying his face in the crook of her neck, inhaling her precious scent. 

She rocked her hips into his, intention _very_ clear, and he smirked at her impatience. Not that he was fairing any better. He opened her bra and got rid of his own clothes while they slowly made their way through the dark room between kissing, touching and panting. They barely made it to the chaise lounge by the time only her panty separated them. She pulled him over her and just before she wrapped her hand around him, she whispered: “Sometimes I still think this is another daydream.” 

“Me…”, he inhaled soundly when she began to stroke him with this little twist of her wrist he never knew he needed, “… me, too.” 

The world vanished around him when he surrendered to her touch, the awareness that this was the reality never failed to warm him inside. Then she shifted under him, pushed him up to offer him one of the rubbers, and pulled her panty down when he fumbled to put it on in the dark. Grabbing his hair to give him another urgent kiss, she shoved his hand that he had attempted to squeeze between them aside. 

“No. Link, I want you. _Now_.” Her legs tightened around his hips to underline her request and who was he to resist her? Cautiously, he sank down – he had yet to touch her after all – but when her welcoming warmth began to envelop him, he couldn’t stop himself from pushing into her at once with a low grunt. 

“Oh, yes that's it”, she moaned and bucked her hips up, “Come on, I want to see the staff blush when we are back next week.” 

He grinned and picked up a brisk rhythm – if she asked for it, he had no objections to taking her hard and fast. Even if this was still a little new, the deep trust between them was not. Bending down to bite her ear, he whispered: “You are remarkably assertive tonight, _Miss Zelda_.” 

“Like it?”, she whimpered when he continued to pepper her neck with little nips of his teeth. 

“Very.” 

And that was still an understatement. She was always receptive to his touch, his movements, but now she melted into him, and he could do nothing but follow. Although he could taste the wine in their kisses, she wasn't really drunk, but the alcohol loosened her up considerably. She had said she wanted him, and she didn’t allow him to doubt her words. 

Her fingers disappeared in his hair again, and she yanked him down, pressed her lips against his ear as good as she could manage with the pace between them. His name in her voice was rough and low, and he shut his eyes, taking a deep breath to keep it together a little longer. 

The pressure inside him was building up and up, and when she pushed her hips up to change the angle, he was nearly relieved that she was already close, too. Placing his hands at both sides of her head allowed him to increase the speed, and he didn't have to wait long until her pliant movements slackened, and she made keening noises under him. Good. 

Pressing a kiss on her forehead, he slowed down to give her time to recover, but her legs went taut around his hips, and she whispered: “Don’t stop.” 

Confused, he tried to pull back to see her face, but she arched her back and moaned his name in his ear. There was only so much a man could take, so he gave in, picked up their pace again, relishing in the way she had her hands fisted in his hair and how her inner walls were clenching around him. He pressed his lips on her pulse point when he came because he knew she loved that, while she only slowed down reluctantly. 

“Ah, shit”, she muttered in his hair. 

What? He narrowed his eyes at her while he caught his breath. 

“Are you ok?”, he panted. “What was that?” 

“Hm? Yeah. ‘m fine. Was trying for a second.” 

His chuckle rippled through them and she moaned in response. 

“Sorry. But you can’t expect me to last long when you ambush me like that”, he grinned and rolled his hips to tease her. 

“Ah, damn it, Link!” 

He watched her a little longer in amusement before he pulled out and shot her an evil smirk. “You swear when you are tipsy.” 

“What?”, she poked his chest with her finger to stop him from snickering, “The fuck I'm tipsy!” 

The impulse she gave him and his peal of laughter was enough that he lost his balance on the small settee, and he toppled to the ground with a loud thud. Her head popped over the edge to ask if he was ok, but he could only laugh harder. 

He pulled her down to the floor with him, and when she had stopped shrieking, he laughed in her ear: “You know, Zel, I love you _as hell_.” 

She stared him down, sweaty hair, swollen lips and all, before she erupted in a bunch of giggles herself. 

“That's good.” She laughed. “Because I love you _af_.” 

He fluttered his eyelashes at her as best as he could. “ _Af_? What's that supposed to mean? Always forever?” 

She collapsed snickering and snorting in his arms, before she raised her head again and got out: “As fuck, you stupid moron.” She kissed him. “Although… always and forever doesn’t sound so wrong, either.” 

“Yeah, ok.” He grinned and squeezed her. “Me too. For both.” 


	43. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slight NSFW stuff ahead. _Again, yes._ They deserve it, after all the angst!

Room 303 of the Castletown City Hotel had slightly changed over the last few years. The wine red, worn carpet had been replaced with a new one in bright blue, the television was even larger and thinner now and the paintings had been exchanged, too. For Link and Zelda, the room had been similar enough – it had been just a symbolic gesture for Link to choose it, anyway.

It had become a habit for him to organize little downtimes for them; a date-night once a month, breakfast in their favorite coffee shop every Wednesday, and a night in the hotels of Castletown every few weeks. He had taken up Zelda's offer and had long moved in, so they had technically no need for a night away from home, but it was simply something else when they hadn’t had the feeling to be responsible for their daughter.

This time, she had been with Daruk. The huge Goron had been a bit nervous when they left – as always – but Tetra was downright crazy about him, so he could hardly do anything wrong. She was quite independent for her four and a half years anyway.

Link woke up for the second time this morning, and his pulse kicked up immediately. Zelda’s back was pressed in his chest, his arm possessively wrapped around her. He glanced over her sleeping form, his gaze lingering on her hand, but she seemed still hadn’t noticed anything. Sighing, he pulled her closer, until their naked bodies were touching from head to toe. Perhaps he could drag out his pleasant anticipation and his nervousness a little longer – he knew just the way to distract her effectually. She stirred quietly, and he began peppering her shoulder with little kisses, knowing that she would never want to miss one of the rare opportunities for morning sex. Sure enough, her hips moved against him, and she hummed softly when she felt him already half-hard brushing her thigh. 

“Good morning, gorgeous woman.” He breathed against her nape.

“Already forgotten my name?”, she answered with still closed eyes, smiling as broad as she could manage despite her doziness.

“Never, Zelda.” He finished their dialogue from so many years ago that had become a pattern between them whenever she woke up in his arms in a hotel bed.

She turned her torso towards him, seeking his lips, and he eagerly answered her with a slow kiss. He smiled against her mouth when she rocked her hips in his erection again, her mixture of sleepy drowsiness and unhidden want never failing to turn him on.

Zelda wasn’t a morning person if she didn’t have to. She loved to stay passive in the mornings, answering Link’s brush over her warm skin, the gentle sucking on her neck, and his teasing strokes over her breasts with nothing more than little noises of humming to keep him going. He took his time to trail his hands over her body, his kisses lingering on every part of her skin he could reach before he slowly dipped his fingers in her heat. Soon, she moaned low and still a bit sleepy, shifting under his skilled hands – her sign that she wanted him.

He loved to have her like this, pushing into her from behind in a soft, but building rhythm, hitting her deep enough to make her gasp, but the friction smooth enough to keep them slow. Normally, she didn’t hesitate to hiss orders at him – deeper, more, yes, like that, goddess, harder, Link – but in the mornings, it wasn’t until he felt her angling her hips, searching more of him, that he knew she was getting close. 

Over the last months, he had truly understood why it was called making love. He had always enjoyed the physical aspect of sex, but with Zelda, he had learned to appreciate the emotional satisfaction that came with being with someone he loved from the bottom of his heart. To feel her skin on skin, every one of her touches, every one of her kisses showing him how much she loved him back – he had never expected the deep joy that beat lazily through his veins. He looked up from a kiss he had placed in the crook of her neck just in time to see her lashes fluttering in pleasure. His heart did the same.

She nudged her head against him, a silent reminder that she wanted more. One time, she had asked him where his mind wandered when he was a little absent like this, and she would never forget how deep he had blushed, muttering in her hair that he thought about her and how lucky he was to be with her. She was his soft spot, and he was hers – it was in quiet, intense moments like this that they fully understood that they were one of a kind, two pieces of a whole circle. 

Gently, she guided his hand where she wanted him most, and he started to stroke his thumb in rhythm with his deliberate thrusts, ensuring he would take her with him when the stars began to explode behind his eyelids. 

In the soft afterglow, Link propped himself on his elbow, his undone hair falling in his face and tickling her neck. He nuzzled against her, rubbing his nose in the hairline at her nape. Zelda hummed with closed eyes and interlaced their hands on the sheets lazily. 

A confused frown overshadowed her sated smile for a moment – she felt a slight resistance and something hard pressing on their fingers. Curiously, she withdrew and stretched her fingers, only to freeze halfway through the motion. Her heart skipped a beat when she discovered that her left ring finger was decorated with a delicate, golden ring with a small diamond in its center.

Link kissed her nape softly, caught her hand, and brushed his thumb over the ring.

“Do you want?”, he breathed in her hair and his fast-beating heart resonating in her body betrayed the casualness of his tone.

She turned towards him and her intense gaze stole his breath once again. 

“Yes. I want.” She smiled. “Very much.”

“Me, too”, he whispered, “Very much.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't forget to leave a kudo or a comment, if you like the story! I generally appreciate sharing my stories with the Ao3-Link, too. 😊
> 
> In case some of you wondered, yes, the prologue and the epilogue are written in third person omniscient while the rest of the story is written in Link's or Zelda's point of view. I wanted to show both their thoughts in these scenes and since the prologue and epilogue are always a little special I thought I could get away with it.  
> I wrote this story because when I play tloz, I get the feeling there's always something else to be done once you achieved a goal. Link is always chasing goals (mirror shades, holy flames and what not) and we never see him settle down or take a break. I wanted to show how difficult that can be if you have built your life on reaching goal after goal. 
> 
> I'm very thankful for the positive feedback I got for this story. Some of you even took the time to write a comment on nearly every chapter, and if you are not a writer, you can't imagine how awesome every single comment is. Thank you so much!
> 
> So, what's up next? I have already written and beta-read a TP 'friends-with-benefits'-story (3 chapters), I think I'll post that in early March.  
> As I already said, I'm writing an accidental marriage one-shot, but that story is a little out of my comfort zone (aka writing style), so we will see how fast I can finish it.  
> Besides, I do have another idea for a long fic. I already have a plot and loose characterizations, but I haven't decided on the setting yet. Currently, I'm toying around with a Moulin Rouge AU context, but no promises. It will definitely contain badass!Zelda with a dagger and inexperienced!Link because the zelink universe needs more badass!Zelda. The story will be darker than this and more plot-driven, but well, I haven't written a single word yet, so don't stay tuned. 😅


End file.
